Game of thrones a chess game
by flaming hunter
Summary: A new player emerges and with him events will ripple and effect everyone involved
1. Chapter 1

''A funnel bought from a traveling merchant, a vase I had to work two days for and its three replacements, considering how expensive glass is. Gravel collected from, well everywhere, Activated Charcoal that now made anything I make half owned by the dam alchemist, the bastard wouldn't give it to me otherwise.''

'Clean Sand that took eight days to make and a world of humiliation, the people really don't like me doing anything. Cotton, regular dirt and a whole bunch of water.''

''All right with this I should have clean water after, I do it and boil the damn thing.''

Its funny how people take things for granted, your age, home hell even your tv and plumbing, Imagine for no Goddamn reason waking up in the middle of nowhere and for some reason you're ten years old again.

What you don't see it like a big deal, well guess what, your muscles remember being bigger and you take bigger steps than your current body is capable of doing. Not only that but you are completely alone, yeah there are other people but, there is no one that will help you.

Ties are tough and there is almost nothing to around.

I so used to using matches and lighters, that I couldn't even make a bloody fire for the night. Hell, it was only because I took my brother's lighter, that I survived the first night and the one after that.

Nights are cold alright. So no food, no water, no money and I was completely alone, did you get all of that? Good.

So I did the same thing everyone does I looked around and found a village, nothing special just a bunch of wooden houses,

Long story short, there was no work for me because I was an outsider. So I had to learn how to hunt and that was a pain, don't believe what they show on tv, you don't just catch things because you set up a trap and I wasn't stupid enough to steal food.

So I turned to the only place I could and I followed the children, turned out that there was a watering hole and fish were thrown in there by the tide, or something considering that there was no lake and there was no way we were anywhere near the ocean.

So yeah that's how I survived eating nothing but fish. Weeks later I found out that there was a river near the village and that's where the fish came from.

So there I was alone, without a home and no place to go., but at least I wouldn't freeze or starve to death.

It wasn't until a traveling merchant that came every three to six months came that I was able to trade several fish for a hammer and a barrel. I lost my lunch but I got something better a barrel for keeping food and a hammer for building things.

Let it be said that a hammer is a multi-use tool, I used that thing for everything, from betting off hungry dogs, breaking rocks and cutting wood.

The barrel was a pain, I couldn't fill it with water, it was too big to carry it back and I had no buckets to carry water back to it. I couldn't fill it with fish because of the same issue.

My salvation came from a woman that had nothing to feed her family and was willing to trade a wooden bucket, for six weeks worth of fish.

So I filled the barrel with water and caught some fish throw them in there and I had a continuous source of food, just as long as I replaced the water and kept catching fish.

It's been two years and I'm still an outcast, but at least people talk to me now and like it or not orphans that lost everything found their way to me and at least I now had some company.

He felt a small tug ton his hand and a tiny face looked back at him. The girl pointed at a man staring at him, he wore an old knights armor, beaten and worn.

''Are you the triads man'' the old knight said.

''I'm sorry what?.'' he asked

''I said are you the man that sells fish and work around the village?'' the knight asked.

'Yes, can I help you.'' he said feeling his breath be held in his chest, fearing the answer.

''I offer my service as a guard, I am capable of fighting and scouting around for any possible dangers.'' the old knight answered.

For a moment he couldn't process what he heard.

''I'm sorry but I can't afford you, our roof is nothing more than a couple of branches and skins,''he saw something in the old man's eyes, that looked all too familiar.

It was the look of loss and hopelessness, the very same one he had when he saw his reflection in the water and the one that the children had when they begged him to let them near the fire.

''Tell you what, if you can help me by hunting and scouting around the area. Ill pay you with work and at least a place to sleep.''he answered as he pointed at a bed made of straw.

The knight smiled and lowered his head.'''Thank you sir.'' the old knight said.

He looked at him and for a long moment neither said anything, there was an unspoken understanding between the two, neither would ever speak of it, but it was there. The old man wanted to know that he was still useful, even if it was just a little.

He only knew the life of a knight and for whatever reason, he was forced to live here. To round to steal and take, unless ordered to, to unskilled to completely survive alone. It wasn't that he couldn't survive, it was that he wouldn't want to.

''Do you know how to start fires?'' he asked.

''Certainly sir.'' the old knight answers, not missing the fact that the boy in front of him smiled in relief.

''Good because I don't'' he laughed, as a tiny hand pulled his right hand and he saw one of the children pointing at the boiling water.

''We boil the water after treating it, helps us not get sick,'' he said.

Speech change  
He watched the boy, gave a wooden bucket and pour the water into a wooden tub.

''It works.'' the boy said. Ashe took water from a large barrel and poured some water onto the wooden tub and stuck his hand in it, no doubt checking the temperature.

He had short black hair, deep brown eyes, white teeth and dressed in clothes to large for him.

As the boy worked he turned to look and saw everything, the people from the village called him a madman. Someone that was better left alone, yet he worked for nothing and that was what they paid him nothing.

He had come here looking for work and found himself realizing that he might be in the presence of someone dangerous. The skins were of several bears, a lion more than one would and if he wasn't mistaken deer's antlers were hanging from the wooden wall, that itself was made from several tree branches…

''Like them.'' the boy said, as he pointed at the antlers. ''Had to fight off the deer, nearly killed me. The wolves well, there are things tougher than wolves, the forest is full of dangerous animals.'' The boy said,

''What about the lion,'' he asked

The boy just smiled. ''Everyone wants to know about the lion, to be honest, I don't know, it was already weak. All I did was let it chase me into the river, it drowned. ''

He looked around and noticed four tiny white-haired children, no older than three, the oldest was at most five. They had white hair, pale skin, and dark gray eyes.  
They wore skins similar to the ones acting as walls, but they were padded with wool to help keep the children warm, their feet had the same skins, wool but had wood that had been burned and smoothed out.

He turned to look at the boy, there was no doubt he was by no means the father. Yet all signs point that he had both been taking care of them and if the clothes they wore were any sign he was both feeding and clothing them.

''Alright, we don't have to keep boiling the damn thing, we have clean water now.'' the boy said to no one.

''Come on I'll show you around.'' the boy said as he patted him on his armored back.

The children immediately began to follow him.''The forest is dangerous, you see I put a line of rocks where the animals are, well dangerous. Don't ever cross them, all of those skins are from the times, I didn't know the animals were there.''the boy said as he pointed at a line of rocks that seemed to be placed around the woods.

''Don't ask me why they don't cross them, my guess is the same reason I don't. There are other animals tougher than they are.''the boy continued.

He didn't say anything but noticed how the children seemed touching the boy.

'Is there something I should know about the woods?'' he asked genuinely curious.

''Yeah, if you see any beautiful woman or hear strange sounds, turn around and leave. The people from the village say that those that follow anything don't come back.'' the boy answered.

''You saw the size of the things, there is no way they were natural.'' the boy added.

He was right, the lion skin alone, was half the wall and the bears practically made the ceilings and the rest of the house.

Something was wrong, the boy had stopped walking, a large black wolf stood in front of them it's gray eyes locked on them. He started to go for his sword only for the boy to stop him.

''Don't.'' the boy said as he pointed at a line of rocks in front of them.

The wolf turned and walked away. He was about to say something, only to notice that the children had yet so separate from the boy, something had yet to change the look in the boy's eyes said everything.

He noticed how every sound was picked up by him, almost as if he expected an attack….

''There's a reason, why I placed those rocks there… but don't get confident. If they're really hungry or just plain evil they will follow you,.'' the boy said, his eyes locked on the place the wolf left.

''Well it left,''he said.

''No, it watching us. The woods are different, I don't know why, but the animals they're smarter than you think.'' the boy said, as thechildren buried their heads into his feet.

It started little by little, first, the trees began to move, then the grass here and there, until all around him the woods came to lie with movement

He drew his sword and prepared for an attack.

''Put that away.'' the boy said.

He didn't listen, he prepared himself for the attack.

''Put it away.'' the boy said again.

''What's going on?''he asked, .but the boy didn't answer, he just kept quiet.

''Welcome to the Lost Woods, at least that's the name I gave it.'' the boy said, as the sound slowly died down.

The boy turned and walked back the way they had come, he began to follow the boy and the children, however, he could feel the eyes of something watching him, even if he couldn't see it, he knew it was there.

The rest of the day went quickly, he was shown where the waterhole was and where the river was located, which housed the boy sold food to and which traded food and material for work. That was when he noticed it, no one seemed to want to speak to the boy unless they had to and when the childrentried to play with the village's children, their mothers would call them back.

Yet the boy knew how to read, write and from the little, he had seen was good at working in a number of different things. But no one wanted anything to do with him, it was almost as if they were afraid.

He briefly thought back to the day he chose to come and see if the merchant's story was true.

''There's a boy, no a man who works for nothing, has a lot of interesting things he's hunted. Been making a lot of odd things'' the merchant said as he took out a doll, that moved one hand up when the other was pulled down.

The sounds of laughter brought him back, it was the children all playing with a litter of pups. He saw the boys look, it was strained as if he was conflicted whether he would get them or not.

''By the way, you never told me your name.'' the boy said.

''Williams sir,''he answered.

''Jose'' the boy said, as he presented himself.

He believed that under the boys rule, his life would be calm and the rest of his days he would spend what small amount of time he had left, in pace.

…...He was a fool, to believe that.

[][][][]  
''The seed is strong.''  
He watched the boy work, seeing how he did things and learning just how to step in the right places if they hunted then it was better than they did in separate places.

Three days of no success and when they finally caught something, Jose made him cut the animal and let it go. He was about tosnap at the boy but remembered that all this time, he had been searching for something.

''A small rabbit won't feed four children and two adults'' Jose said, the tone of his voicewas calm but hinted at him being alert. Jose patted him on the back and walked ahead.

''You never told me what exactly we're hunting?'' Williams said as he followed.

''Anything really, as long as it's big enough or there's a lot of them,'' Jose said, before stopping his eyes were locked on the ground in front of him.

''Williams, when we left there were only twofootprints right, mine and yours,'' Jose said, his arm drawing closer to the hammer he had tied around his waist.

Williams for his part, was slowly drawing his sword, neither said anything however they listened to the sound of the woods. Slowly they stepped, careful to not break a branch or make much noise.

Each step seemed to be a bit more difficult than the last, especially considering that as they walked, they noticed that more than one line of rocks had not only been stepped on but outright moved.

As they got closer to the area where the skin tent, was located. They noticed smoke coming from the direction the village was, Williams turned to look at Jose and saw the worry in the boy's eyes.

He wanted to know if the children were safe, he left them alone inside the skin covered home. No one in the village would take care of them when Jose hunted and it was too dangerous to bring them with him, with them.

Now he was paying the price, for his stupidity.

The tent was fine and the children could be heard laughing, they looked in the direction of the village and found it fine, the smoke was probably someone cooking, or getting rid of something.

The sound of a small bark caught theirattention, if there was one thing he learned about the woods was that everything has a mother and no matter how small things are. Their mother is usually something big.

Jose opened the tent and noticed the children playing with the same pups, they had been playing with, when he first arrived.

''Why are they here?'' Jose asked.

''The butcher, he said they were too loud and getting too big. Said that since we're out here, then we should have them.'' the boy said looking at Jose.

''Miguel, did he say he wanted anything in return?'' Jose asked the boy.

''No, he just said to not bring themback,''Miguel answered.

The rest of the day, they simply watched the children play with the pups, four dogs for four children. The forest was quiet, annually is, normally one would hear, the sounds of birds animals and well a forest.

This one was quiet.

At night it was no different, but Jose didn't sleep, not unless he had a fire nearby and even then, he would stare out into the dark woods.

''What do you think made those tracks?'' Jose said.

'I don't know sir. Could be the town's peoplepreparing for winter.'' Williams answered.

Jose blew into his hands, trying to warm them, he was quiet not entirely convinced. Neither said anything, but the silence spoke more then either one could have.

''No.''Williams said.

''I didn't say anything,'' Jose said.

'I know what you're planing Sir and it's insane.'' Williams said.

Jose didn't say anything again but his eyes were; locked onto the forest. He just blew air into his hands. ''Alright then You're coming with me and the monkeys, with their new pets too.'' Jose said.

No one goes into the forest, not too deeply anyways, The Lost Woods was said to at one point killed an entire army of mounted men, horses and all, the only survivors were a bunch that made it back half starved and at the edge of insanity.

This was one of the reasons he came to see the boy, Someone was surviving so close to it, not like the villagers who gave the forest a wide breadth, but at the very edge of the Lost Woods.

The children stirred as they slept, the pups were with each one of them, the time he had spent here, that admittedly wasn't much taught him several things about them.

One they viewed Jose, like a big brother andat times they acted as if he were their father. The second, well that one was a shock. They copied everything from the movements theboy did when he used the hammer, to the way people talked around them.

Still, it was getting darker and the two of them slept.

The next day, they walked into the forest, with the four white-haired children at their side and the pups struggling to keep up. Their small size made it hard for them to follow. They passed the lines he had become all too familiar with, the forest gave its usual welcome, first came the silence and then the unnerving movement all around them.

Again it stood there watching them, the large black wolf, with the gray eyes looked at them, however this time it wasn't alone. Williams looked at him and noticed that several beasts were looking at them.

There was a large deer one whose size was so large that it almost looked like a Moose, a bear who was so large that it made Williams feel like a boy in its eyes. As they walked, they were met by a pack of golden lions, none of them paid any attention, disregarding them as nothing important, except for the smallest one of the bunch, that looked at them.

They had now reached the last line, here was the place the part that warned them not to go any further.

''Williams get them out of here if something happens,''Jose ordered, he had his hammer in his hands and a small knife made of rocks he had broken off.

Deeper and deeper they went, in a straight line, so they could turn back without being scared of getting lost. Once in a while an animal would show up, but it never left the area it walked in, each time Jose would either make a line of rocks or dig a line in the dirt.

Williams breath nearly stopped, his eyes were wide at the sight in front of him, the creature was dead there was no doubt about that. Yet as Jose touched it, Williams could see how he hesitated.

''How much do you think its scales are worth?'' Jose asked him.

''Ten can feed a man for a month, these many can make you very wealthy sir,'' Williams said, still hesitant at the sight in front of him.

There in front of three black pups with patches of white fur, a single white pup with patches of black fur and four children with white hair, stood Jose dressed in brown cloths and behind him was the corpse of a fully grown black dragon.

''The boy has greatness in him,'' Williams said as he saw Jose turned to look at the dragons corps.

]][][][][][  
They worked for hours and couldn't even budge the thing, not a single scale came loose. It would have helped if they had any tools, instead of just rocks which thy beet into the openings between the scales.

It was getting late and they were just about to give up, when one scale broke off, it was like a pattern after the first broke of anotherfollowed, then another and another one after that. The largest one they took was the size of a full-grown man.

The thing was that the scales were light, so light in fact that between the two they took at least ten to fifteen scales each.

The second thing was that the corps had been there for a long time now. There was nobody left underneath, it was completely hollow.

That night they ate their fish and his sense of accomplishment was crushed after Jose told him the merchant wouldn't return for another six months and that the villagers would only trade for small things.

Still, even with all the damage, the scales had taken, they hadn't been damaged at all. There wasn't even a scratch on them and the only thing they had taken, were the smallest of the ones stuck together.

''Hey, how do you like my new shield'' Williams sad to Jose.

''Looks good,'' Jose answered before pausing. ''Williams, some of those scales were really big, do you think we could use them as walls?'' Jose asked him.

He hadn't thought about it, no that's not right he had thought about it, but not as big. He briefly looked at his shield and smiled.

So for the next eight weeks, they worked and the only thing they ate was nothing butfish…...however their home was now, as high as three giants all standing on of one another because they couldn't cut the scales.  
They had to weeb the scales thru the areas that connected them to each other. So now it was a strange curvy shape but was now longer and they had their own rooms.

The kitchen, his room, Joses and the children's room, a storage room, the bath and the workshop where they would make anything they needed, at least they hoped they could use it for that.

Unfortunately, no one wanted to buy the scales, so most of them were stacked up in the storage room, a plus was they now had a boat. The dragon's tail floated and water didn't get in, they learned this when the kids thru scales into the river, when they went to collect water, so they could travel up and down the damn thing.

They made themselves, crude armor, just in case of an emergency, yeah fortune had come to them.

][][][]  
[Elsewhere ]

A young woman no older than fifteen stared into the ocean waves, she blew into her hands trying to stay warm. Her long white hair was kept hidden under a black hood, she shivered the ocean's waves splashed water on her and the wind made the journey nearly unbearable.

It had been months since the destruction of the Targaryens and as far as she knew she was the last one.

An infant whimpered as its mother tried to keep it warm, near them a man coughed and sniffed, she hoped that a plague didn't start or else the crew would start throwing people over.

She didn't dare sleep, already there was the talk of more than one person taken away and…. She hoped no one turned to look at her. All she wanted to do was stay in her corner, she kept blowing into her hands but they wouldn't stay warm.

Everyone on board had heard the stories about a safe place away from all of the fighting, Esos was not a safe place Slaver was all over the place and the people traveling on horse or foot didn't like strangers on their land.

Westeros…..she couldn't go back there, none of them could. The kingdoms wererebuilding and bandits were all over the place, most of the people here were simple people that had to leave their homes and spent what little coins they had just to pay the way to get there.

So there was no way for any of them to go back.

''There's a place in Sothoryos, a boy hasgrown up there alone.'' a merchant said, he was drunk and laughed at the boy's stupidity.  
''Stupid Brat! he was probably some merchants bastard or some nobles unwanted spawn.'' he laughed as he said how much he made of the toys the boy sold to him and just how little he paid for them.

That is an Alchemist who was drinkingnearby heard him, the next thing everyoneknew was that the merchant was on the floor and half of his companions had swords at their throats. Apparently, the boy had sold half of everything he invented to the Alchemist and by extent, the Alchemist Association, not even kings stole from them.

It would never come to open warfare but, medicines-poisons-sugars-salts and more came from the alchemist, it was a mutual benefit but if one alchemist ever stepped out of line, the others put him or her down.  
This way they kept their secrets safe, after all an all-out assault by a king would either destroy all of the secrets or have them spread to every kingdom.

However no one stole from them, theAlchemist would hunt and hurt whoever did. The people who sold the secrets to making fine white salt and sugar learned that the hard way and in revenge they themselves spread the secrets too much of the medicine and how to produce them.

Every doll was worth one silver and the merchant had sold ninety-nine of them, every skin was worth at least ninety silvers, the head was bashed in but the rest was still good or else they would be worth ten to thirty gold.

Giant beast was a rare sight and their skins were highly praised.

Needless to say, the merchant agreed to return the boy's earrings to him and separate what was rightfully his and the alchemist cut of the earnings.

Still, if a boy could survive there alone and both catch and kill so many things, just how dangerous could the place really be?

[Williams ]

It started sometime during the night, like usual Jose refused to sleep, he just looked at the direction of the forest.

One of the new additions to the house was it actually had doors and it was this little detail that saved their lives.

It started with a loud bump, them as if it was in, hell it probably was rain, it kept going none stop and the forest came to life with the screams of the animals. The children screamed as the roars and cries mixed in with the loud thumps from whatever was hitting the reinforced dragon scale walls.

One odd thing about the village was that none of the houses had windows and those that did, had some form of lock that connects an inner window to a window outside, so it could only be opened if the people inside wanted it to.

It kept happening without end even as dawn broke and it only stopped, somewhere in the afternoon. The children cried themselves to sleep and neither of them dared to open the door until an hour after the sounds had stopped.

They struggled to get waking the little ones or the pups, yet neither of them could breathe at the sight that met them.

''William, you said you were tired of eating fish,'' Jose said, his eyes wide, his right hand was on his head, trying to wrap his mind around the sight before him.

All around them, were the corpses of an unknown number of animals, from a giant lizard with spots all over, they had long sharp claws and their mouth was covered in teeth. Several kinds of giant frogs, stiff giant spiders and dozens of tiny lizards, that almost looked like dog-sized dragons.

But what caught their attention, was the dead body of a massive ape, the creature was so large that it could easily be mistaken for a hill or a mountain.

[][]

][][]]][]  
He walked for a few steps and one could say that the forest was already cleaning up its own mess. Jose stayed with the little ones, rock knife in hand and his hammer right next to him, in case he needed to use it.

More than one corpse was dragged away by some unseen creature or whatever thing lurked in the woods.

A light grow behind him, made Williams turn around and he noticed the giant black wolf that always watched them when they entered the woods. It was accompanied by several wolves of similar size, the size of a large horse.

He didn't bother to raise his sword, there were creatures moving all around him and for whatever reason they hadn't attacked him.

He felt the hot breath and for the first time since he first came to this strange land, he honestly felt like he was going to die. As he slowly turned his head, he was met with the red eyes of an old gray wolf.

Its giant head and fange covered mouth, locked eyes with his own and for a long moment, both studied each other before the wolf dismissed him and returned to the pack.

''Looks like we're officially apart of the forest.'' William thought to himself.

He momentarily stopped to look in the direction of the village and saw that several bodies were already being moved by the townspeople, whether they were Human or otherwise, William didn't know and didn't care.

Those people weren't his problem.

William momentarily thought about telling Jose, that he planned on entering the Lost Woods, however, he chose not to, seeing as the boy would forbid him from doing so.

However, he needed to make sure the dragons corps was still there or at least a large amount of it. The scales had proven their worth and in all honesty, he would now try to convince Jose to keep the scales and sell whatever else they could collect.

Even before he gave the first step, William could hear the sounds of meat being torn or bones breaking, hell more than ones he swore the ground underneath him moved, which was interesting considering he was just standing still.

Each step he gave was a careful one, even as he walked deeper into the forest, he noticed the complete difference to the times he was with the boy. All around him, the forest was alive and didn't bother to hide its cruelty, in every direction he looked an animal tore thru another's corps, even the birds were cutting apart small animals, the blood that rained around him proved this.

He stopped, there it was completely intact, it was funny just how little that had even removed, the entire body was still there. Hell, the boat was nothing but the tails tip.

''The dragon's corpse…..why now?'' Williams asked himself.

A loud grow caught him and he quickly turned around and was met with what looked like a dragon, but it looked wrong, there was madness in its eyes. It looked at him, the corpse of a giant lion in its mouth.

The creature simply walks away from him. ''I failed, so why now?'' Williams said to himself.

He walked this timeless carefully than when he entered the forest, remembering where the lines were, no doubt they had been moved by all of the animals and his eyes caught sight of the black house, it looked like a small castle.

''Looks like I'm now apart of the forest'' William thought to himself.

Yet as he neared the house, he saw the children running around laughing as their pets chased them. He turned his head and saw Jose standing firm as the giant black wolf with grey eyes, he lifted his sword and prepared himself to avenge the boy and protect the little ones.

The Wulf just turned and left, the boy was now just another animal of the forest.

Then in an instant, the boy was flung by something hitting him in the chess. Williams ran to try and help him only to see the boy fighting against what looked like a baby dragon snapping at his face, while the boy held it by the throat.

Williams saw how the boy squeezed the creature's neck and he turned over and placed the creature underneath him. It was at this moment that the creature stopped baring its teeth, defeated, it stopped moving altogether.

The boy let the creature go and the thing actually liked his hand, yet Williams saw the massive face of the black Wulf staring at the boy, before simply vanishing into the woods.

Gasping for air, the boy turned to him and said. ''Let's get something to eat.''

][][][]]]][]][][][][][][][][][][]][][][][][][][][][]]][]][]][]][][]][]][][]][][][][][][[][][][]][]][][][][][][][]][][]]][][]][][][][][][][]][][]][][][  
''My Lord, we have located the infants.''  
''However, we have also located something else, someone much more troubling. The Seed is Strong.''

''He has short black hair, dark eyes and pale skin, he has created a small kingdom, with half a dozen armed men loyal to him. A fleet both guards and trades with them. The Ironborn are the owners of said ships, however, they have begun to create their own fleet.''

''However a Targaryen, the woman is known as his left eye, while a knight is known as his right eye. They are fiercely protective of each other and by extent the people under them.''

'It is known that they have begun to expand into the surrounding islands and that they have even sent boats to Esos and even the Summer Islands, however, no fruits have come from contact with them.''

'The infants and the woman, along with the boy's appearance, that the boy is your batards twin brother.  
The one you hinted at, the fateful day youordered us to search for the infants.''  
][][][]][][]]]]][][][][][]]]]][]]]]]][]][]][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]][][][][][]][]]][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]][][][][][][][]][][][][][][][][]]][

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An uneasy silence lingered, neither one of them dared to say anything…...until.

''Alright I'll say it, want to go to town and see if anyone needs some help?'' Jose askes Williams.

''No, they're alright, those people aren't our problem, besides none of them have even tried to come up here and speak to us,'' Williams answered, Jose.

''Alright, by the way, does this taste strange to you?'' Jose asked Williams as he bit into a giant spiders leg.

''Needs salt,''Williams answers, he was surprised when Jose decided to eat the giant spider first, however, he was even more shocked to find out that the trad the spider made, was still coming out even the spider was already dead.

One of the kids had ended up getting tied up by it, so they were forced to bur it off, unfortunately, this ruined the skins the girl was wearing and now they needed to cut more in the shape they needed, in order to fither.

''The dragon is still there…..we need a wall to protect us…..The scales held but we still need a better defense,'' Williams said.

Jose just looked at him, chewing the strange flavored meat.

''The trees act as support beams for the house, plus we have to remember the animals territories...But I think we can make it all the way to the entrance of the forest.'' Jose answered.

''Actually, I was thinking about another direction,'' Williams answered him.

Jose's eyes widened, as the realization hit him.

''No, look I don't even know how much is the village's territory and those people only tolerate me, what do you think they will do. If they see us building a wall and entering their area.'' Jose answered.

''Yet if we stay the way we are, there is going to come a time when something comes out of those wood and we haven't build up enough defenses to deal with it…..Just look at the creatures outside right now.'' Williams answers.

''So it comes down to, a forest that can and will kill us, or a group of people that barely tolerates s,'' Jose said to himself.  
''Alright, we'll go talk to the villagers tomorrow, right now we have to deal with all of the dead bodies,'' Jose said to William, his tone suggested that he was simply trying to avoid problems.

Williams thought to himself and wondered just how many people he would have to deal with. The village only had a hundred people, there was a brewer\the only tavern, a simple butcher, some people that made clothes and fishermen.

Everything there was made by the people themselves and helped each other out, that is unless you were an outsider, the children-Jose and himself were proof that the people would just let people die simply because they weren't part of them.

He briefly looked at Jose who had his food stolen by the lizard that had attacked him earlier, the animal had stuck to him and even to the two had thrown the animal back into the woods, the thing just kept throwing itself on to the boy.

It would have attacked the children had Jose, not hit it over the head. So ow the creature was eating the meat thrown to it and fighting the pups for whatever meat they were eating. This is what cough Williams off, the pups were, in fact, more dangerous than he had given them credit for.

When the small dragon stole the meat of one, another would attack it from behind and another would steal the meat from the creature when it roared at them.

It was a strange feeling, moving corpses around, he had slaughtered-skinned and done everything with preparing an animal. But there was something about being surrounded by creatures that could tear you apart and them not even give you the time of day.

William had to admit it felt exciting, seeing so many creatures, yet at the same time, it felt somewhat insulting none of them considered him a threat.

He knew that in time this would change, the animals were only acting this way because there was so much food at the moment and seeing the many many, creatures, made him realize just how exposed they really were.

Their home wasn't enough and they needed to expand by force, may-be built along the edge of the river.

Still, there wasn't any hurry, first thing was first, they needed to build a wall around their home, perhaps add a second floor.

Hey worked until the sun began to set and brought in as much meat and other materials they could use, putting them away inside the storage room.

The next day, they went and spoke to thepeople no one gave them the time of day and it wasn't until Jose yelled that he would be building a wall from where he lived, towards the town. No one cared until a woman said that if he was going to do it, then to just do it, but no one was going to help him.

So fr the next day they began to work, the walls would separate them from the forest while using the trees themselves as their support beams, this brought a problem they needed a restroom. They couldn't just use the forest anymore, so with the help of a woman who Jose sold fish too, they gained a shovel and dug for days creating an outside house for their needs.

Using giant snakes skins combined with giant spider threads, they made ladders to climbthe walls. The dragon scales were the largest ones they could carry, saving the tallest for the open areas where the trees were toseparate from each other.

Somewhere along the line several young boys and one or two men asked to join them build the walls.

Slowly more and more people joined and they paid the people with both the meat and they in turn traded tools for the walls to reach their homes.  
Apparently, no one believed they would actually build the walls and much less survive wasting their time doing the job, for that matter.

Still, no one dares to enter the forest and the few that did would outright refuse to do so unless the boy or himself would accompany them.

It took two months, but the walls were finally up and the people now spoke to them, when they saw each other. Unfortunately, their food supply had run low again, seeing as they had helped feed everyone that helped them.

However, the few fishermen brought back larger catches as they now had a proper place to return to.

There was now a small patch of land that everyone used to farm the few plants they could grow and a large space where more houses could be built. William admitted to himself that they probably shouldn't have been so greedy, but they now even had the fishing hole properly protected.

Considering the thing was two days awayfrom where they lived, it may not seem like much but the thing provided food in hard times.

As for the dragon, the entire tail was now gone, both its front and back claws and hands? But at least they still had the head, wings, and body.

At night wooden torches light the edges of the wall providing light, for both protection and safety for the people inside them. They allowed people to see what was coming and helped them walk around at night, something that was impossible before.

Al in al it would take five days to walk from the river, the village, their home and to reach the fishing hole.

Some animals were brought in, the friendly ones anyways…. A horned dog that pierced the things it attacked before biting it and tearing it apart. However after a kid fed a pup, the thing kept coming back and after a while, it brought more with it.

Giant beetles had their wings broken and were allowed to wander around. The things ate shit and they cleaned up the place, so they were useful. The last thing was a wild horse, it was a pot for riding, its meat was tender and that was people used it for.

It was hard to believe all of that happened, but now it was time to celebrate the wall's construction.  
][][][][]]]][

[][][][]]]][  
It was a strange thing, being surrounded by so many people, woman and men talked among themselves and drank whatever was being given out. Little ones ran about, chasing one another, while others fought using small sticks.

Small boys graved some of the spotted lizard meat and handed it to him, the boy and the children. Jose eagerly bit into the meat, however, he began to cough almost immediately after, for a moment William thought the boy had been poisoned.

It was only after a small girl gave him a cup full of a purple drink, that the boy stopped coughing.

'' It's spicy,'' Jose said as he drank his drink.

With those words, several of the men started laughing. ''The first time is the hardest, ah boy!'' a man screamed, he was drunk and pat as he spoke.

''Bit slowly kid, that meat has its own spices.'' another said before drinking and biting into a leg from one of the giant birds.

William simply stayed quiet and looked around him, he noticed that even tho they were surrounded by people, no one dared to approach them, unless they were offered food or a drink. Even as they walked to one of the tables, no one stayed near them.

The table ad ten chairs but wasn't being used, however, it had people around it eating near them, somehow the people eating on those tables has slipped and walked away from them. William had to give credit for their ability to move without being seen or heard, even tho they were out in the open.

The little ones had at some point, run off to play with other children, however, it was getting late and the torches were light, slowly people began to clean up the food that remained and picked up the chairs andtables.

William could only say to himself ''How did it get so late so soon?''

Jose and himself ended up carrying one child in each arm, well Jose carried two in each arm he ended up carrying the older boy on his back while holding one of the girls in his arms.

The next day a knock on the door woke them up, they both armed themselves and opened the door. Yet they were shocked to find the older members of the village, both men, and women standing there with expressions that said they needed to talk.

[Speech change]

The house was large almost as the same size as the trees that were used to support it. Somehow they used the black rocks with the strange patterns to build it, the boy moved aside and showed them in, the hammer he bought all those years ago was in his right hand.

The oldman, however, didn't, he just kept looking at them. Somehow his stare made the metal of the sword he was holding glimmer with the combined light of the fire inside the house and the light of the sun outside.

He stood there watching them, ever vigilant and for a moment it felt as if the man growled at them.

Still, he moved and let them in, what they saw actually shocked them. The walls werecovered in skins, both old and new some were still hanging being prepared to be placed on the walls. The hard shells of the giant centipedes were placed on both ends of the room, their size made them reach from one end to the other.

Tree branches acted as dividers in the ceiling and it somehow made it seem like something was u there watching them, their suspicions were proven true when a lizard with wings flew down and hissed at them.

It acted like a dog protecting its master, seeing as it placed itself between the boy and them.  
Several skins placed over wooden carpets that acted as small beds, the little ones still slept on theirs and the pups that they had with them all slept at their sides.

In the center of the room a fire burned keeping the darkness of the house around them away, however, it also kept it warm, seeing as the temperature was slowly getting colder.

''So what did you want to talk about?'' the boy said, as he sat down on a chair made of the same black rock with the odd pattern.

''I'll be blunt, there's a village to the north another to the south and one that is somewhere in the forest. They've all seen the new walls and want to be allowed in.'' the oldest amongst them said.

The boy rubbed his eyes, still half asleep. ''So why are you asking me?''

''Like it or not, this is your fault…. You and your walls.'' a woman said, her voice held so much venom in it.

''Are they, dangerous? Or do they want to hurt us?'' Jose asked.

''No, but if we say no, they will attack. Their homes didn't come out of the great harvest, most did not survive it.'' the oldest answered..

''Let them in, but tell them they have to carry their own weight,'' Jose said, again he covered his right eye with his right hand.

''That's just the thing, some of them only know how to fish, they traded with us, others just know how to carve rocks and the ones inside the forest…...they are even stranger than you.'' the same woman added.

''As long as they don't harm us or sacrifice people, we can figure something out,'' Jose said, acting as he dismissed the woman's words.

''There isn't enough room, you will need to expand the walls.'' the older man added.

[William]  
He had seen it before, it didn't matter if it was the glimmer in the eyes or the movement of their bodies, but he had seen it before. As the people spoke, they looked at each other as if making sure they stuck to the same story.

Like it or not the boy was right in the middle f a powerplay, William didn't know if what they said was true or if they simply were trying to force the boy to act, in taking over the nearby regions.

Then there were the words that they used that the people only knew how to do certain things, it was like they were telling him what they were good t and why they should be denied entrance.

The final thing was the boy himself, they had come up here just to speak to him, no they had put up the front and had even insisted on him saying no to bringing in the people from the other villages.

Considering Jose's past history with the children and himself they knew he would open the doors for them, No they wanted him to let them in…..that was it, they wanted someone to blame if everything goes wrong.

But could these people be so smart, to think so far ahead. If everything went right, then not only would they soon be able to build a proper town, but also begin to expand further around the river. So even if this went wrong everyone would simply turn and blame Jose for it all, ending up the way it did.

All of these thoughts and more went thru Williams mined, however, he didn't show it. Even as the people left their home, William began to think of a way to deal with further troublemakers, like it or not he needed to plan.

. ''How did it get so late so soon'' William said to himself

[]]]][][]][][][][]][]]]  
[Elsewhere]

They could see their destination, it was finally within sight. The days passed at sea, were telling, in more ways than one. She could feel her stomach move as he hadn't had anything to eat in three days and the food was being heavily rationed.

They had encountered more than one ship, most were fishing ships that traded their catch for what else the people had, there were stories, stories told between the sailors about the new home they were headed to.

Islands that were supposed to have in times long gone, been used to torture and cast unholy magic. The mainland was infested with the beast so horrible that only the strongest could survive in them.

However, there were also toys, that something had happened. The seas had changed, they somehow seemed calmer, it was like if something had come and that there were even sightings of people walking along the shoreline.

Natives, that survived within the forest, some had arrived long ago fleeing some long forgotten catastrophe, others no one knew where they came from.

However several ships had now joined them if the stories were true, men that sought the vast wealth within Sothoryos were now headed theirs. Knights that had lost their lords and were now in exile, simply wanting a new start in life, headed there.

Beast teamers that wanted to capture the creatures within the forest and f they couldn't at least bring back the skins or shells of whatever they found.

There was even more than one lord from wherever, that simply wanted to restart their houses.

Still, their new home was now within sight and as they approached it, she caught sight of an opening that led into the heavy jungle. It was quiet, uneasily so, then the jungle came to life roars and screams filled the winds around her.

The people huddle together trying to protect each other and knight drew their weapons, only for the sailors to laugh, saying that as long as they remained on the site would be perfectly safe.

That was before an ape punched him in the face and immediately engaging him in hand to hand combat.

The rest of the crew laughed and announced. ''The forest has welcomed us, let's give it our thanks,'' they said before screaming and howling back, their voices mixing in with the forest around them.

All around them, beast howled and eve made themselves known, as their forms looked at her and displayed their teeth as if trying to intimidate her.

[][][][]]][

The people around her stood side by side, trying to hide the little ones, they viewed everything with wide eyes filled with fear and interest. She briefly turned to look at them and it was in that instant, that the sailors had been joined by several monkeys that clapped and how'd as the man continued to fight with the monkey.

''That's enough you lot, get back to work!" screamed the captain, his voice was accompanied by a how of a silverback gorilla.

''The forest is uneasy,'' he said as he drank from a large bottle of wine.

It wasn't long until the signs of a large black wall that looked as it was made of scales, there were several stone carvings ofserpents, that looked as if a child could move them, yet their detail as surprisingly amazing.

Several torches were on the wall, but none of them were lit, with them several wooden planks stood slightly above the wall from the inside.

''Place as changed.'' said the captain, however, the gorilla growed as if sensing something. The rest f the monkeys did the same and all of the crew drew their swords, long gone were the howes and cheers, now was only quiet, even as the ship drew closer to its spot.

They didn't even wait for the ship to stop, men were forced to leave their wives and any by as long as he was ten names old, was given a sword and told to march. However that didn't mean that any of them were safe, everyone was given a knife or whatever and told to walk.

][][][][][][

She felt her arm be pulled and when she turned to look at seeing who or what it was, she noticed too that one of the sailors was handing her a bottle filled with blood. Yet when she was about to look inside, the man pulled the bottle back and look her directly in the eye.

She forgot, her clothes made her look like a boy, the fact that she was dirty and smelled bad didn't help people think otherwise.

The world turned quiet, she couldn't hear anything, even as her body moved on its own, she saw everything. She saw how her hand reached to take the small container, somehow her body was moving on its own.

''What was happening?'' she didn't know.

Even as she saw the men with brown skin, guide them thru the forest and the boy marks the path whether stone or marking lines on the dirt.

After walking for a day and a half, each time stopping to avoid an animal, even those never saw them, she found herself standing in frontof a wall made of white wood.

''Hey, I'm here for my people! Hand them back and we will completely forget about everything!'' Jose screamed.

A man screamed something back and a man told the boy that the other man had just insulted him.

''The boy just smiled. ''You know, I wouldn't have just leave you mone. You came to us asking for help and like fools, we fed you when you were hungry and gave you to drink when you were thirsty.  
And what thanks did your people give us? You killed my people, you killed our children and you stole so many.'' Jose said before nodding at the sailors to begin to start throwing the containers over the walls.

The sound of the bases and bottles breaking were immediately followed by the smell of blood, the smell was so strong. Then the boy threw a small bottle onto the pale white walls surrounding the village.

It was in a moment that, but everything was so quiet. They began to turn and walk away, she didn't know what was happening only that she was pulled to the side and hide behind a tree.

Her eyes widened as a giant snake that passed by them. She couldn't hear anything, the world was quiet.

A large lizard looked at her, it walked on two legs and sniffed the air, then another and another more than one passed them.

They just waited, even as the trees began to move above them.

They just waited…..but the world was so quiet.

The explosions of the walls breaking echoed and the screams of both man and beast combined, yet the screeching didn't end. Aman put his hand on her cess holding her down onto the tree, more and more animals were gathered, for the kill.

The searches started getting louder and louder, by the heavens they were killing each other and more were coming.  
It ended when the night came but it didn't stop, the dead animals gathered in one spot attracted the ones that moved at night.  
][][][][

][][][][  
No one moved, the entire time, it was like an unseen force kept them from moving a single muscle, then quiet, it was so quiet all over again.

None moved not even as the sun began to rise.

The boy moved and began to talk, he held a knife made of a broken piece of rock, one by one the men followed him. What they found was absolutely nothing, the animals were gone, the land was bloody, while some animals and human remains were here and there.

The sounds of whimpering could be heard coming from a set of large rocks, the men moved to see what it was or if there were any survivors and they weren't disappointed.

Bloodied and beaten holding spears in hand several of the men that had attacked their village. Among them were several of the people that had been taken, however among them were several people that hadn't been amongst them.

This was disturbing, woman and children were the grand majority, it wasn't because no men were taken but rather for a reason no one dares to speak of.

For in the center of the village was a large white tree with red tinted leaves and amongst its branches were the entrails and around the ground were the bodies of both men and boys.

For some reason, no animal dared to eat of them.

The woman and children were taken and the surviving men were tied by ropes and made to march.

She saw the boy standing in front of the tree, she thought that for a moment, the branches stretched out attempting to grave him.

The next thing that happened the boy walked up to her, took her hand and held it the entire way back to the village.

He didn't say anything and only let go when the old knight was in front of him. The boy walked away headed to a large house away from the village.

''Captain, do them look like they could be sold for a good price?'' the old knight said.

The captain looked at the captured men and smiled. ''So you want to sell them, Tell you what I'll take them to Esos and keep half the pay.''the captain answered

''No, I'll sell you the men and you can do what you want with them.' the old knight answered the captain.

The captain's eyes hardened understanding what he meant. ''We will bring back what we can.'' said the captain as the men were dragged onto the ship.

[William]  
He followed Jose and found him washing his hands and throwing water to wash away the blood of saw how the mood and blood mixed hiding Jose's tears, William saw this even as he saw the boy trying to hold back his tears.

Jose turned to look at him and gave a weak smile.

''I broke my hammer'' was all that Jose said.

Yet even as he was about to say something, the deep voice of the captain came thru.

''Stop crying boy, for your people are in more danger than ever.'' the captain said as he drank his gorilla at his side.

''My men heard the people talking, they planned this attack, they wanted to take the village and your woman. All of them were in on it.  
Guess the God was with you, good thing we arrived when we did.'' he said.

''Look, the word is getting around, what you will do to those that betray you and even now, they plan on killing you.'' the captain continued.

''Let them come,'' said Jose, his small lizard grind.

''Here that madman sends you this'' the captain continued as he handed Jose a letter.

It was from the alchemist, how the man made it seem as if the man was screaming at him, for his stupidity was beyond him. However, the man had assured him that the acts of thievery wouldn't happen again.

''There are islands nearby, take them there and keep the fools separated.''the captain said.

''What do you mean,'' added William.

''There are more of them, inside the forest, but none of them ever go to the sea. Separate the ones you have with you and deal with those still in the forest.'' the captain answered.

Neither Jose nor William said anything, they simply sat instance as the captain drank. The children's laughter echoed inside the house.

''Captain, I request a small boat.'' Jose said.

''Already done, you see I just bought some help.'' the captain answered.

''William how much blood do we have?'' Jose asked.

''Not much,'' William answered.

''Looks like we need to expand. They don't come back from the islands as for the people that came in the ship, let's figure out what they can do and if they don't know how to do anything, let's settle them in one of the villages.'' Jose said to William.

][][]][  
''We have a lot of people that need to be replaced,'' William said.

''What happened to the other adult men, can't they handle it?'' Jose asked.

''They are dead or just plain don't want to be bothered,'' William answered him. ''However, if you listen to me I can make things work, but you have to trust me,'' William said his voice was cold.

''What are you planning?'' Jose asked him.

''Take the infants and young ones and train them to be loyal to you. Separate the woman from the remaining men of the village and the ones that just arrived.'' William answered.

''We can't do that, that's sick,'' Jose said.

''If we are being watched, that means that they will be watching our reaction,'' William answered Jose.

''This will also make the men that have just arrived, have a motivation to listen to you, not only that but the woman will have more reason to stay inline and not think they know too much to just go into the forest.'' William continued.

The silence lingered between the three, no one spoke only the loud gulps of the captain swallowing entire mouthfuls of his wine until Jose spoke.

''William, am I going to have to do this again?'' Jose asked Wiliam.

''Several, in fact, you are going to have to do it more and more and as your control grows, you're going to have to do far worse,''William answered Jose.

''Why me?'' Jose asked.

''Do you remember when I first asked you to accept me to work for you,'' William said, this caught the captains attention, as he simply looked at the two.

''The people told me that there was a boy that worked for nothing. But that was the thing, you worked, any other would have gone into the woods and died, but no you helped out around the village and you even ventured in and survived all on your own.''

''Do you think I don't know that the doors and toys the children are playing with, were made by you. Or that the reason you and all of the people here spend your night near a fire, so you can hide from the thing that attacks at night and who was the one that discovered this.'' William said to Jose.

''And now, most of the capable men of the village are gone and the only one who has the most chance of survival, is yu boy.'' the captain added his two cents.

Again the silence lingered…

''Separate the captured woman and count how many men we have if they enough make it so that every man can have two wives and if possible make it so that there are four wives, the rest are nothing more than pleasure woman.

Make it so that this only applies to the captured woman, not the ones that came in by ship. They don't deserve to be treated this way.'' Jose told William.

''What about the children?'' asked William.

''Try to see if any of the women will treat them as their own, if not get the ones that submit to us to help take care of them, The ones that are left we will have to take them in and get some of the women that came in to help us..''Jose answered.

''Ill crack you a deal, do what you have to do, but my men need to have time to relax if you know what I mean. Plus you need more children to/replace the men you lost and a way to force the woman not to try anything stupid.'' The captain added.

Jose looked at William, who in turn simply nodded, but put his country deal.

''Sure, but it will have to be for a price,'' William answered the captain.

The captain simply laughed and began to walk. '' Let's see what you want'' the captain said.

The world seemed to move quickly, the people that had arrived were shown some of the houses that now were left without owners and were told to take them all as their own.  
Tho uncomfortable, they none the less accepted them, those didn't get a house were told they would have to build their own.

However William announced that every man that was around thirteen should be present, he immediately separated them from the ones that already had wives and those that didn't.

The woman were separated from the ages of twelve to thirty and were given by fours to the men, it didn't matter if they had been rescued or captured, they were nothing more than a liability at the moment.

Weapons, tools, silver, some food, and wines were traded, however, the children which were a lot of them were taken to their home and put inside one of the unused rooms. Several of the men and woman that chose to work helping to take care of them agreed to ovey William and Jose.

For the next two days, the village was filled with whimpers and screams, filled with pain, shame, pleasure, and regret.

Knowing that Jose would be safe with the captain and his men around, William for his part went to look at the dragons corps and was met by a sight he never expected. There standing at the clearing was the mad lizard looking at him, its eyes glittering, but under control, the creature seemed to grin, however a howto his right made him turn to see the old grey wolf looking at him.

With every step given by the lizard, the wolf matched a grow made the two stop, it was the black wolf that kept showing up whenever Jose was around.

Yet when William turned to look at the wolf he saw the old gray wolf turn and walk away, yet the insane dragon simply flew away. William drew his sword and looked at his reflection in the smooth metal now worn.

He briefly remembered his times as a basic soldier, he was nothing special. All he wanted was to spend his life in peace and now life placed him in a path he didn't know if he could handle.

][][][][][][][]  
[ Captain]  
Meats, furs and whatever material the village traded was loaded onto the ship. However, the true reason he and his crew even came back, where the animals that were captured and taken to be sold for a high price.

The village being attacked was a heavy blow, the price the animals were sold for was extremely high. However they had gained something, it wasn't something large of course, but now they had a place to come and settle onto.

The village was small but it would grow, he wasn't counting on the people inside the forest, no if those idiots infuriated the kid any further, he wasn't counting on them living anymore.

Still, the village was extremely weakened, most of the men had been killed off and the anything that was left to defend it, were women, children, and a few men.

Still, he and his men had secured the area near the river and the best part of it was that they didn't have to be apart of the village. Before the sole reason why they hadn't done so, was that the men hadn't allowed it, now they were gone.

Still, they now had a place to go back to and not need by apart of it.

A change was coming, the ships that had come with them had gone further down and that was sheer stupidity. The village survived simply because it was so close to the river and its distance to the ocean.

Regardless a fleet would soon form and would lock onto the village, it wasn't like it wouldn't happen, no it would happen that alone was guaranteed.

His men reluctantly let go of the woman, the woman simply whimpered. That brought a smile to him, the boy was cold to those that betrayed him, in fact, it was the simple fact that he gave the hammer to the kid in the first place, was enough to give him some influence over the boy.

However, the village needed to grow and that meant traid and he needed to get the rest of his men. The very thought of what he was planning, brought a smile to him, as things stood Esos was out of the question, to many unknowns, Westeros was a lot morepredictable, simply because of all of the minor houses in it.

They needed food and if they couldn't pay with gold, wood, stone, building material and whatever they could see profit in could be used.

They began to set sail and began to pass thru the forest, it was only an hour until he noticed that there were eyes on them. The natives were watching them, he signaled his men and they, in turn, brought up the older men that had been captured.

They were placed on the edge and pushed into the water, their screams echoed as the animals in the water tore them apart.

He signaled again and his men brought back both men and girls. An idiot could tell they were all relatives, no they were all not related to each other but to one another. The men were forced to watch as his men enjoyed the girls, even as they called them for help, they continued this making sure that the natives saw everything.

A message had been sent and the chain of events had now been set, he smiled even as they exited the ship. Still they needed to go forward unto Esos and to leave the men there as slaves, however, his men were not going to simply let some of them have fun.

So when the first group was done another and another and another took their place.

So why didn't he simply sell the girls, the answer was simple, the boy had forbidden it. The girls were toys and nothing more, but any children were completely innocent, he exhaled no doubt the girls would be carrying infants soon enough.

O well, he went into his room and closed the door, the whimpering sounds of several girls echoed soon after.

[]][][][][][][][  
[William]  
The endless screaming every time the children cried kept him up at night, several women were brought in to help take care of them and unfortunately for everyone involved Jose f=decided to let the bitches rejoin their cubs.

That was a dangerous move.

Still, he needed to get up, he had five girls instead of four, but Jose simple said that if he could take care of them, then it wasn't his problem.

Two of the girls were even younger then Jose and in fact the boy had disapproved of it, it was written all over his face, but he didn't say or do anything.

''Do what you do, away from the kids.'' was all that Jose said.

The other two were only two to three years older than the boy and the last one was still in child birthing age. He chose them all simply because he wanted to have a large batch, several little ones of his own and the younger the woman, the more children she could have.

Still even as he dressed he looked one last time to his prices and smiled none of them ever tried to resist and it was only the eldest that tried to fight him. Her screams were what he enjoyed the most.

Outside men were already hard at work, there had been several people that had a lot of useful skills and it was thanks to the tools that they had gained by selling he bitches that they now put those skills to use.

Several trees were cut down in order to reinforce the walls and build several watchtowers, smiths and some farmers had begun to make whatever would be made, while those that knew how to work the and did what they did best.

It was there that the problem lied, as things stood right now they needed everyone and sending of the without the islands would be pointless.

He could hear the sounds of impact in the air, the winged animal had begun to fight more and more of its kind, the fighting only ended when it held another by its throat just how Jose had done to it.

Immediately the others became fully submissive to them, the fighting didn't end it just kept growing.

William knew that it was a foreshadowing of things to come, those things didn't live near each other and were now somehow finding their way to the one controlled by the boy, as if their eyes were somehow cast to them and as if somehow a near confrontation with leaders of similar standing was going to cure.

From the woods on the top of a tree, he could see the mad creature look at him, grinning. It was like it knew something, something that was to come.

[][]

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[Speech change]

She was dressed in an all too revealing fashion, the boy had ordered her to dress this way. Her dress was nothing more than a piece of cloth and had a boy he and the old knight not acted as shields she was certain, more than one man would have forced themselves on her.

The weather was getting colder and her clothes weren't helping her keep warm. For the first time since she arrived at this harsh place she was glad that her breasts were so small, she could see him blowing into hisarms trying to keep them warm.

More than one time she could see him take a glimpse of her legs and in more than one occasion did the boy actually try to lift her skirt, yet when she slapped him the first time both William and Jose himself laugh.

She remembered how the point at her short silver hair and at the sight of her exposed thighs.

''If you want me to stop, you're going to have to learn to defend yourself,'' Jose told her.

She gasped at that moment, how had he known? No one knew she was a woman, yet he had seen right through her disguise.

Neither man nor boy said anything, they simply smiled and walked away.

Ever since then, he forced her to stay near him. Whatever the boy planned to do to her, she knew it wouldn't be good. More times than not, had she seen girls as young as nine be sold to pleasure houses, wives and husbands took to some lord or mistress bed.

So she now found herself walking next toJose, she could feel the leaves and twigs break under her feet. Crack crack crack each step she took seemed to linger in theboundless forest. A sound to her left made her turn her head, then she turned to say something to Jose, task him what were they supposed to do here, she found herselfcompletely alone.

She knew what this was, he was trying toscare her.''Jose!'' she called ''Jose!'' she called again but the soundless forest was all that remains, slowly he walked forward, her heart began to slowly speed up and thefeeling near her area began to feel strange.

No, she knew this feeling, it was walked forward each step lingering with the sounds of dry leaves and sticks cracking under her feet, the world began to get blurry and she soon found herself crying.

He brought her here only to leave and let her die, no she knew how to get back there was a dirt road that leads straight to the house. It was made by something repeatedly being dragged over the dirt.

Suddenly red pedals began to rain down around her and the path began to turn red orange and yellow. All she could do was walk forward hoping that Jose would stop his little game and come out.

The path suddenly stopped the marks were gone and the moved dirt was now covered by leaves and petals. Still, she kept walking and a loud growling sound caught her attention, she didn't dare to turn around, yet she willed herself to do it.

Her heart stopped.

Two massive wolves whose heads were the size of a full grown man, she was about to scream and run away. Yet several smaller wolves had begun to run at her, she never even saw them and she ran deeper and deeper into the woods and she fell.

How long did she run she didn't know, all she knew was that the giant black wolf was standing right on top of her, its crimson red eyes looked like glowing embers, it opens its mouth and the giant white fang covered mouth reached out to her.

Everything went dark.

She felt herself being shoved and she began to open her eyes. The cold air touched herand she saw herself lying down near a hole where water seemed to splash in it. Jose was sitting next to her.

''Hey, we need to get back. It's getting late.'' Jose said to her, she turned to look at him and saw the two crimson red eyes, she was about to scream, but when she closed her eyes and opened them again the boy was sitting next to her.

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The sun was going down and soon the only things lighting everything would be the trenches near the walls. She walked with Jose her long robe made her look like a monk, she lightly blushed remembering her dream.

Jose had taken a liking to her and it was her boy like appearance that made her somewhat, no she didn't know how she felt about that. She looked down at her robe and wondered why she would think he would want to see her in revealing clothing.

First of all, he was much younger than her and she knew that he wasn't a good person, after all, what he had allowed to happen to the people that had attacked them. But what disturbed her about the dream wasn't the wolf, it was the fact that she didn't want him to leave.

She felt completely lost without him, that was the reason she had broken down into tears and then the wolf ….. What did it mean? She turned to look at Jose briefly stopping, allowing him to walk in front of her.

Tinnn tinnn tinnn

The sound of the smith's hammer echoed, it was getting darker and her chess hurt the more and more that Jose walked away from her. She reached out to him and she was about to break down into tears, yet for the briefest of moments, she found herself standing in front of a ship and Jose leaving her behind.

TINNN tinnnn tinnn.

''Don't go.'' she said, but her voice was a whisper and it was breaking. She felt that if he left her, wasn't going to come back.

Shhhhhhsshh

The sound of rapidly cooling metal being dropped into cold water brought her back to reality, the sun had completely set now, she watched how the smith had done his best to repair the old hammer adding some small pieces just to make it a little bit heavier and a little bit stronger.

There was a point on the top that could be used to in pail things, tho, in all honesty, it looked a little too small. The grip was now red with several black circles to give it a better feel and the hammer itself was a two-sided hammer, rather than the hammer side on well one side and the spiky part on the other.

She didn't know what that was called so she just called it the spiky part.

She could see Jose talking to the smith, before taking the hammer and running back her. ''Hey look, he says it's not done yet, but it looks good doesn't it,'' Jose said to her.

She looked at the hammer in his hands and just how small it was, admittedly it was strong enough to break a man's head, but it was so small, that Jose could use it with one hand, but that was the ting want it.

This was the same hammer she saw him use, to break the man's head open killing him. No this wasn't a fighting weapon at all, no this was his tool, his emblem.

''I think you need a sword,'' she said.

He looked at her somewhat hurt. ''Naaa, if I ever use those things, I might never be able to come back'' Jose said to her. before a large grin marked his face.

''I'll crack you a deal, I'll use a sword the day you marry a man,'' he said to her beforerunning back to the Smith and returning the hammer to him.

''You know what'' she stopped thinking about her next set of words, however, she waited for him to be right in front of her.  
''You know what, I will. I accept yourproposal!'' she grinned, he was years younger than her and there was no way the imp would ever do it anyways. So she raised her voice so that everyone present could hear them.

''Yes Jose of the Woods, I accept your proposal. When you are of age to father children and if I have not wed, then you will pick up a sword and I will bare your children!  
But only as your wife!'' she announced.

She could see him give a step back and the villagers began to murmur among themselves.

Jose immediately kneeled down and rose back up. ''My lady, I so desire and wait for that day. Atlas that may never bee, for we are both men and you have no womb to carry children in.  
Thus I will always remain solely with my hammer.''He said in an overly dramatic form. Making poses the entire time.

The two began to laugh, but in the back of her mind, she wondered if she had done the right thing. He didn't know she was a woman, it was true that he didn't bother her because she hadn't taken pleasure woman like so many men had, but that was mostly because he hadn't either.

In what seemed like a second, Jose was thrown to the ground and immediately tackled by three little silver hird children and their dogs. The eldest, simply laughed as he laid flying lizard jumped up and down, keeping Jose on the ground, while the children tickled him.

''Alright you four, time for bed,'' Jose said only getting complaints from the children as they went back to their home.  
''That means you too.'' He said to the lizard, just how a creature that would tear a grown man's throat and smile while doing it could act like a scolded child was beyond her understanding.

''You know if you wo do wed, it will be expected for him to wear a dress!'' Williams' voice came from the other side of the village.

''Hey kid, make sure not to be to xited in your wedding night. Try to enjoy him, because if he gets pregnant you won't be able to!'' a man screamed.

''Tel us beforehand that way we can get you something!'' added another man and the joes kept on coming. They really shouldn't have made such a racket with their joke, anyway, it had been her fault so she would it go for now and get her revenge later.

Still, the men were busy building more houses, it took longer because of how they had to be made, stronger and with special locks that kept the animals away.

That was the brutal reality, the walls only kept the weaker and more troublesome animals away, the truth was that there were giant monsters that a tiny wall couldn't hold back, there was just no way.

Then there were the flying ones and the ones that could dig underneath it and finally the real monsters. The villagers had warned her, that unless there was a damn good reason, never go past a certain point into the forest.

The attack Jose and the pirates had carried out, was one said the reason.

Still, it was time to sleep, she followed Jose to his house but waited outside. When Jose went in, she sat down an allowed herself to drift to sleep.

She found herself inside a large tower and a small lion walked beside Jose. They walked near a window and a beautiful garden was shown to Jose, by the small lion, he smiled and the twisted as if they were close friends.

A loud roar made her turn and an old lion whose name was worn and it seemed as if it was falling off. Her heart raced and she found herself terrified, the small lion had a wolf next to him.

She struggled to breathe, Jose stood in front of her, she was naked, cold, his hammer erupted with blue lightning, William was with him, there was a cold light coming from the sear he was holding. It was dark and the growing of two wolves standing at their side.

It was the large black one and the old grey one, the black one's eyes were glowing a fierce red, while the green one's eyes were a fiery blue. Her breaths stopped and her eyes widen in horror.

There was no ground, there were no walls, everything was the enemy, the only safe ground that remained was the one the two defenders.

She woke up, her breath was hard and she noticed that snow had begun to fall.

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The snow began to fall slowly, a large bears fur covered her shivering body and she turned to look up and noticed Jose standing by the door.

''How the hell did it get so cold,'' Jose said, as he blew into his hands.

''We were able to finish two of the houses, but if it keeps snowing,'' William said as hewalked up to Jose, informing him of the situation.

''Can we build them by connecting the hoses to the walls,'' Jose asked.

''No, the walls were built to hold back invaders or animals but if we build the peoples houses on it, we risk destabilizing it,'' William answered.

''Not only that, but the animals and the people will start to get sick, or freeze if the snow keeps coming,'' William added.

''Can we build a large building one to keep the people in for now? Or a stable of the animals.?'' Jose asked William.

''A large house would be useful, but the animals can be put in the same place as the people, they are too dangerous. None of them are properly tamed.'' William answered Jose.

''Can you build the body of the house?'' Jose asked William.

''NO'' William answers.

''So you can't build the buildings houses?'' Jose asked.

''You know damn well what I mean. We don't know if these people will remain loyal, to give them that kind of material.'' William said.

…..''William they already have it. A lot of them are living in here watching over the infants.'' Jose said to William. His voice was calm but somehow unmoving.

''….'' William.

''Jake you're coming with me, William keeps an eye on everything for me,''Jose ordered her and William.

''I'll go with you,'' William said to Jose.

''No, we cant take the kids and if the people try something. I need you to make sure they stay in line.'' Jose answered William.

His eyes stayed locked into the distance, his eyes remained on the forest. The sounds of the animals contradicted the ever-present silence during the day.

She could see Jose aiming for an empty spot on his waist. The sounds of branches breaking and the sound of screeching made her turn her head.

'' It's back,''William said.

''Yeah,'' Jose said.

She didn't dare sleep for the rest of the night and when the light of day finally chased away the night, she saw how much the snow now covered the forest. The entire ground was now covered in white, while several patches of green remained here and there.

She followed Jose into the forest and the word became quiet. She slowly followed him, but every step she gave seemed to get stuck in the wet dirt and ice turned to snow.

He was getting further and further away from her and she stretched her hand to him. She was about to scream at him, tell him not to leave her behind but then he stopped and laughed, he turned around and helped yank her foot off the ground.

Her shoes were covered in piled up snow and mud, but as they were getting all of it off using his stone knife a hot huff on the top of their heads made her look up and she was about to scream.

There a giant black wolf stared at them.

She fell and dragged herself thru the snow and mud, trying to get away. Jose looked at her confused as a giant grey wolf joined the black one, all three looked at her like if she was crazy.

''Jake if they wanted to kill you, they would have already done it, look how big they are,'' Jose said to her while signaling to the wolves.

She got up and let him help her finish taking off the rest of the snow from her shoes. They walked deeper than they had, even when they had gone to attack the other village and there surrounded by snow and trees was a dragon.

It was missing a lot of parts of its body and Jose for his part, just ran up to it ad yanked a giant scale from its side.

''Come on, we need to make more than one trip,''Jose said to her as he yanked another scale and threw it on top of the larger one.

They did this several times and a large round building was made, the men made it for the woman that hadn't gained any men to take them in. It would be a brothel, there was no way it would be anything else.

Two more were built separating the animals that were easy to control and another used to keep the giant bugs from messing with the other animals. Strangely enough, the insects seemed happy to go in it.

The last building was made, it had several rooms. In fact, the entire building could be called a mansion seeing as how it had several rooms, each large enough for a family of twenty to live in.

The last building was made for them for them to do their needs, next to it was another one that acted as a large bath one side for men and another for a woman.

Each day it was getting colder and colder, the problem was that in order for the buildings to be made they had to use trees that none of the animals were using. The hunters were the ones that guided them to the ones that could be cut down, all the while keeping an eye on any possible attacking creatures

It was cruel but the men were also used as bait and the animals killed were the villages food. A woman from the captured ones began to cook a lot of different stews and in open fire, this caused her to be seen with good eyes.

So a large kitchen was made for her and any woman might help her in it.

The infants had begun to learn to live without their mothers and now stopped crying whenever the woman that now took care of them were preset.

During his off time William took any capable men and boy and began to teach him how to use the sword, Jose was amongst them, however, he was tossed around like a rag doll whenever it was time for him and William to spar.

However, when it came to hand to hand combat, Jose used something he called boxing against William. It didn't help for the old knits battle experience, pushed the small dragon down like he was nothing.

Still, the snow fell and the ground became whiter and the dragons corps became smaller and smaller.

She stayed away from all of the training until one-day Jose challenged her to a sword duel, neither of them could best the other. However when it came to them fighting each other in hand to hand combat.

It was William who forced them to immobilize the other, Jose bested her easily however it wasn't until he was on top of her, his elvo to her neck and his hot breath to her ear. She could feel him slipping between her legs as she tried to kick him off.

She called to him to stop and when their eyes met she let out her real voice.

''Stop'' she called out as a woman and proceeded to beat the ever living daylights out of him.

Everyone laughed, telling Jose that if he kept losing he would be the woman and that she would be the man.

Slowly, life was becoming normal, her brother. The boy she knew was her brother and the other three were being taught, by William in any free time he had.

So here she was, with Jose carrying what was left of the dragon scales back to the village. There was only a little bit of the dragon left and the two of them were alone together.

She felt Jose stop and bring down their load.

''So when were you going to tell me,''Jose said to her.

''Tell you what?' Jake asked him.

''You don't bath with everyone, instead you take a bath at my house. You scream like a girl and I know what men have between their legs you don't have it.

Jake, your chest is growing a lot.'' Jose said to her enfesusing her now lumpy chess, the two things couldn't be called breast but he was still looking at her chess like they were something he wanted to get his hands on.

''I'm sorry,'' she said.

''Relax, I get it you had to dress like a man for a reason. God knows this world is cruel.'' Jose said to her, as he walked up to her.

''Will you tell'' Jake asked Jose but he just cut her off.

''William knows,'' Jose said to her, but she could only look at him.

''Really, you didn't know. He makes us spar all the time and more often than not, he makes me and you hug and grope each other during our fight.'' Jose said to her.

She taught for a moment and yes he was right. However, she smirked knowing she would catch him off guard

''This coming from the boy that graves my chess every time he gets and lifts my legs with the pretext of making me scream uncle. I will find it hard to find a husband.'' Jake said seeing Jose's eyes widen.

He gathered himself.''Didn't we agree you and me would get married, so the hell with other men you belong to me and I belong to you.''

Her heartbeat stopped for a moment, at the sound of Williams' voice.

''Then you better keep him away from the villages woman. By the way boy, how will you have heirs if you lay with another boy?'' William asked Jose.

''William how did you?'' Jose began.

''The village is right there.'' William signaled them as several men took the load from them.  
''The guards saw you two and since you didn't move they wondered if you two were just tired or if something happened to you.''

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They followed William back into the village, it was strange seeing the black scale walls, that became wood the further up one looked up.

The torches now burned both night and day, the snow would make it difficult to see sometimes and the hunting parties needed a way to get back, so the fires were kept light less the sudden fog blind them completely and the men become lost.

She could see the two massive gates open and Joses house right on the other side, more than one person said how foolish it was to have his house near one of the village entrances, but the boy just brushed it off as him not really seeing the difference of him having it near the entrance, to him having it in the middle of town.

According to him, if something can get past the gates then the location of his house didn't matter anymore.

As they entered the village, the laughter of children echoed all around them and the quiet of the woods was left behind long forgotten.

Jake could see them playing with a ball made of short deerskin and several pieces of light brushes and leaves, the combination gave it a soft feel but a light bounce as well.

She could see several fires lighten up burning under large cauldrons, boiling water and letting the vapor enter the houses.

Jake was called out by several men urging her to get a drink, while she walked along with Jose, it was odd considering that several of the women called her to accompany them.

They had gotten used to their new position and according to the few people that can speak all of their languages, none of them expected them to be treated so kindly. They just had to spread their legs and their children would even be treated kindly by the one that ruled the village.

Some of the women had been captured by several different tribes, invasions aren't uncommon, so they were taken away from wherever more than once.

They told stories, horrible cruel things that tore the infants from the wombs, men cut apart and sewed together with animal parts and in locations more than one child was put in the same body.

It was these woman that would more often than not call Jose to them, the boy was only twelve and the woman were acting for more seductive every time they saw him. She would jank him away when this happens.

He hadn't taken any woman as his wife yet and he hadn't acer or was like the other men and she would make sure he stayed that way.

Still, they walked past several men that were using hammers to break stones and making a road that leads from one entrance to the other and if the people had something to trade directly to their homes.

The snow now covered the dirt, but still, the giant beetles ate all of the filth the animals dropped, she looked around for a moment and ran p to one and jumped on its back. The beatle ran and did its best to jump knowing her off its back.

Jose smiled yet he just kept walking, finally they reached their destination, she hadn't even paid attention but William and the men had stayed behind somewhere.

Still, she was hungry and they entered the large building, inside fishermen along with some hunters drank a type of liquor a man-made, while the women worked in the kitchen and several young girls served the tables.

In the center of the room was a large fire with three cauldrons, the boiling water lets a white mist shoot from the cauldron on to the ceiling.

She smelled the wild bird roasted on the fire and the fish stew, but when she turned around she couldn't help but frown. Jose was looking at a girl who had her legs exposed nearly showing her ass, no more than that she was doing it on purpose, she wanted him to look.

She smacked him on the back of the head and signal him to go to a table. The moment they sat down, the door swung open and the children ran up to them. All four of them showed Jose some drawings they made and their best attempt in writing.

Among the people were several ex-servants of some nobles, tho the names of who these nobles were was lost to her, they nonetheless agreed to teach all of the children and any adult that wanted to learn.

A large breasted woman brought their food and she left Jose's plate right next to him while saying she hoped he would take a bite. The idiot was actually smiling stupidly, he closed his eyes and patted her on the head.

The woman just left with a look of disappointment.

She ate alone, Jose was with her and the boy she knew was her brother too, but the other three kept making Jose feed the like a bird feeding its young, the man did so. Every time the children would spill some of the food he would wipe their mouths and try to get some of the stew for himself.

She wondered if this was how it would be like if she were to bear children, would the man do the same for hers. Would he feed them and watch over them when she was unable to.

….No, he wasn't a man, he was still a boy and she was a woman. He would one day meet a girl his age and she would be on his bed and then.

Her eyes began to water she felt like she was about to cry, but she couldn't cry. She knew the world and her feelings meant nothing in it, besides he knew she was a woman and had declared her his and himself to be hers.

It was stupid and he would even forget it, but …...no no buts if he still wanted her when he could them she would give into him. She pushed her feelings down and ate quietly as the loud voices f the men filled the room and the children played.

She felt her hair being played with and instantly knew that one of the girls was playing with it again. Jose had scolded them before, but seeing as they had the same hair color, she allowed them to do it, Jose never said anything against it ever again.

She wondered if he knew .that she was a woman back then or if it really was when he was between her legs trying to get her to submit. It didn't matter, Jose didn't really care, but that was the thing.

He didn't look at her with the same desire, he looked at other women, it was both foolish and stupid for her to even think about it. Foolish because according to him he would claim her if she wasn't taken when he could claim a woman and stupid because Jose was only a boy.

Yet she knew, how the world worked. She had seen a Lord hang a man for marrying a woman and not giving him the first night with her. The Lord hadn't raped the woman, no instead he did something worse, he handed her to a bar filled with nearly a hundred men.

She had seen what was supposedly a lady, drug a man and ride him in public and several other women do the same, while his wife and daughter watched. The girl hadn't even learned how to walk, but nonetheless still cried with her mother as he was handed over and…..

It was better not to remember, his only crime was marrying in secret.

Still, Jose ruled with a hard but kind hand, he welcomed the people and from what she heard he fed, cloth and defended those that sought his help, but if he was betrayed he was a real monster.

But that was the thing, according to William it wasn't the betrayal, nor was it the attack. It was the fact that after Jose and the people fed, cloth and sheltered them, they still killed and raped the people.

He gave them kindness and they gave him to hate, so he returned their gift tenfold.

They had sacrificed the boys and men in some kind of demonic ritual, so Jose wiped out the attacker's village and took the woman as slaves, no they weren't slaves.

This life was too good, if they got sick they would be taken to healers, they now even had husbands and the bastards of the woman that didn't find any takers were treated as Jose's on and given a place in his house.

In fact, several of the women that still had children in their bellies and those that couldn't eat on their own were given a place as well.

The men and young boys that could rise u against him and the townspeople were sent away, she didn't know what Jose had done to them, nor did she want t know.

The small children, however, were kept to slowly come over to the village's side, time would erase the boys and girls memories.

He is a good man even if he was still a boy and she would make sure he stayed that way.

Still, the light of day was leaving and she would soon keep watch over his house, Jose had more than once told her to go inside, but she didn't trust herself. If he were to insist, she knew she would give in, she wouldn't allow it.

He was a kind ruler she had seen a city or was it a town, in all honesty, she didn't know but the man that governed it was pleasant and kind to its people when he married everything changed.

The streets that rang with merchants, people talking and children laughing were replaced with screams of sorrow when the man died.

The woman was mad, she would have men hanged because they simply looked at her and woman publicly tortured because they looked better than her.

No Jake knew that if she were to choose a man or a woman as a ruler, a man was the best option. Everyone knew a man would rape or torture, but their suffering would eventually end, but a woman, would make damn sure a person lived and kept suffering.

In the time she lived with the man that had protected her, he had helped her escape from several places, until the day they heard about the boy that survived alone in the woods.

She remembered how the man protected her all thru her life, his name was Jake, this was the reason she used his name when Jose asked her for it. Now she wished she told Jose her real name and it was getting harder and harder to tell him what her real name was.

Still, her father died before they could leave, they had been attacked again and he was sick. Westeros was not a place friendly to them and any attempt to escape was prevented by the guards, her brother had been taken by the woman of one of the Kingsguard.

However she didn't know who he was, but now she did, William must have been that guard, whatever happened to the woman she hadn't dared to ask.

Still, it was time to sleep and she closed her eyes, the sound of snow crunching under someone's feet woke her up.

She felt something heavy cover her, it was a large boar skin, yet when she looked up she was surprised to see William standing over her.

''If you keep sleeping on the dirt, yull freeze'' he told her.

''Thanks'' Jake answered him, as he opened the door.

''Don't mention it, use it as a rug when you finally accept to go to is room. Good luck getting past the kids tho.'' William answered her.

She put the skin underneath her and smiled, she was warm, caught between a bear skin and a boars.

She found herself walking with Jose down the dirt path inside the forest, the leaves were red yellow and orange. The colored petals began to dance down around them, again Jose walked further away from her and again he vanished.

She wasn't scared, no she remembered Jose's words. ''If they wanted to kill you then they would have done it. Look at how big they are.''

The giant black wolf came and so did the gray one, the smaller wolves ran towards her she wanted to run but she stopped herself. Then from nowhere, the giant black wolf was on top of her its crimson burning eyes locked on to her.

No, it was on something behind her, it charged viciously, a stallion charged at it and the wolves fought against a group of horses that outnumbered them a hundred to one.

She saw an older version of herself, she had a slender body and long silver almost white hair.

The stallion fought the black wolf and the stallions bit and kicked the wolf tearing it apart, yet when it looked as if the wolf would die, its eyes burned and thousands of eyes opened in the sky.

And death rained down, the stalios died their throghts torn.

She woke, her heart raced she was covered in a cold sweat. She knew what this was, this was war. Her eyes were wide that if anyone saw her, they would mistake her for an insane woman.

She cried, would she turn him into a monster. A hiss caught her attention and the small dragon that had no fire landed near her, then it gave a leap and landed on her, it immediately made itself cometherble and went to sleep.

It was heavy and she couldn't help but smile. Jose was kind, he wouldn't kill like a crazed animal, not unless provoked.

She couldn't sleep.

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The night was cold and dark and the shadows made by the orches seems to dance in front of her, for moment she wondered if this was how those men in the story felt.

A man walked past by her, some of the men were only farmors and there wasn't that much farmland, so now they just walked back and forth watching the edges of the wall trying to see any movement.

A loud roar caught her attention and the ground began to shake, she could see a giant lizard or some kind of dragon that walked on two legs, walk right past the village. The sheer size f the beast made her realize just how insignificant the village was.

Jose told her that a giant gorilla was killed before she arrived and that the animals tore it apart ,in no time. The people didn't even get a chance to cut a piece of the beast for themselves.

According to one of the men in the village that heard them talking, he sat down with them and spoke about how the things body was covered in somany animals and things that they couldn't even get near it.

Crunch crunch crunch. The sounds of branches breaking, along with the snow being pressed on by something big. The wall shooked, something was dragging itself across it, the man was about to scream when another thru him onto the ground covering his mouth.

The sounds continued, whatever it was, it moved back and forth, she knew what this was. The animal was scratching itself on the spike like scales.

The sound happened again, then again and again, it wasn't just one animal there were several of them.

William walked out sword in hand, Jose stood next to him, he held a rusted sword the woman and children were with them. Their eyes locked with the man, who was covering the guards mouth,the man nodded and William nodded and closed his eyes and went back inside.

Jose graved her and covered her mouth, he pulled her into the house while she dragged both the skins with her free hand.

She was actually quite warm, the house had a large fire burning in it and a large pot heating water that like the others warmed their home.

Some of the woman and a few men that slept in one of the other rooms, stood by entrance, as Jose put a finger to his lis and made a light shh sound.

The men and woman walked back into their room.

Jake turned her head and had a full view of the naked bodys of the woman William laid with, she saw them follow William and surround him. Jose dropped the curtain down, but she could still hear what was happening on the other side.

Jose sat on a chair made of the dragon scales, he held onto the old rusted sword, the little ones slept cometherly covered by several skins, their dogs with them. The small dragon was somehow already laying behind him, in the space between the tree and chair, at his feet the three children slept cometherbly with their pets at their side.

She could see them smiling as they slept, the skins kept them warm and as strange as it seemed the small dogs seemed to match the children's smiling faces.

She could see Joses face and he just put a finger to his lips, telling her to stay quiet.

She put her boar skin down and layed down to sleep,however the moaning sounds and light screams began to fill the room. She knew what William and his woman were doing,the problem was that soon after the sounds were followed by the woman's moans from the other room.

She laid there, listening to the sounds of lovemaking, the door to the outside right next to her and his eyes locked on her.

She couldn't sleep.

The fire made the shadows dance, and he could hear the wood crack as the fire burned thru it.

She closed her eyes and let the warm mist of the hot water take her, it was quiet the moan and screams seemed to somehow blend in together, with the sound of boiling water and cracking burning wood.

She woke up to something liking her face, in an instant she sht up her eyes wide and children laughing at her.

''Hahaha, she got scared.'' said the eldest, as the sall dogs jumped at her.

She turned to see several woman looking at her, they were naked and wer holding several small children in their arms. Some of them were sucleling on their breast, the men had trousers covering them but not much else and Jose was he was only wearing.

''Jose put some clothes on'' she said, he was only wearing a skin around his waist.

''Jake lighten up, look around you, it's time to take a bath, so get out of the way.''Jose told her, completely uncaring at the fact that she could see him.

She did so and found her eyes following several woman carrying infants and small children, the sounds of water splashing and woman telling children to calm down soon followed.

To reach the bath, people needed to exit thru the front door. Jose had a personal bath and the eldest woman William had was bathing them, Jose had already taken his own bath and was now changing right in front of her.

She tried to turn her eyes, but couldn't help but see his scar covered body, he turned and said.

''What?''

''Your, how?'' she asked him.

''I lived alone for a while, the forest wasn't so nice back then and having a bunch of little kids that look like easy food, doesn't make things easier.'' Jose said, as he pointed at a scar that reached from one side of his chess to the other. His back was no better, in fact it seemed that if she hadn't known to, his back was nothing more than scars.

She found herself talking, she didn't know but she read out and touched his chest and held him in her arms. He had his back turned to her, but he didn't reject her.

''Ahemm'' Williams voice rang out.

''Do it later, we have work to do.'' William said.

She quickly turned around and found herself being stared at by several woman, some of them had their hands covering their mouths.

The day was the same as the day before the men worked on the stone road and the little ones went to be taught how to read and write, but there was an uneasy feeling like if something was somehow wrong.

They went and grabbed what they could from the dragon corp and made several trips for that matter and things were quite normal. She wished it had stayed that way.

They were just returning to the village and it was their last load for the day, when the alarm sounded. William and several men graved the scales and rushed them in, inside the town were a lot of people people she had never seen before.

They had their spears, axes and clobs down in front of the kneeling, several woman placed their infants in front of them.

''They say that they want to live behind the walls and that they offer everything to us, ut in exchange, they want us to protect them from them.'' William said to Jose.

''Who are them?'' Jose asked.

''I don't know, they shy away from any mention of them.'' William answered Jose.

Jose just stared at them, half of them were naked shivering because of the cold. The other half they were either wounded or kneeling in front of them.

A woman walked up to Jose and layed an infant at his feet and a man placed a pear next to him, they both kneel at Jose's feet.

''They say they know that if they betray you, you will awaken the forest and it will do your bidding, they offer everything.'' William added.

''So they saw us'' Jose answered William. ''William, why do they have different colors.''Jose asked as he saw the markings of several different face paints.

''A man spoke u and began to ask the people something in a language they she couldn't understand. The men kneeling down answered in the same strange language.

''They say, that they are all that's left.'' the man told Jose.

''What do you mean they're all thats left?'' Jose asked the man.

''Jose, they are what's left, their villages are gone.'' the man added.

''William what the hell do we do?'' Jose asked as he remembered how they were betrayed before.

''Do it but keep them away from the rest of the town. What I mean is keep an eye on them.'' William answered Jose.

''Tell them they can stay, but they will have to carry their own weight and if any of them try to sacrifice people or even so much as try to take over the village .'' Jose told the man from before.

The man said to the people what Jose told him, but as the woman picked up their infants. William began to move heimmediately separated the woman that had men with them and those that had infants, but no man.

The men that were injured, were separated with those that could hold onto a weapon. The man again spoke in his strange language and the men were separate from each other, those that could fish were handed over to the fishermen.

Young boys, were separated in three, William made sure to do so. The hunters, the fishermen and a separate group, that he had for himself.

The girls were seperated much in the same way, it didn't matter if the boys and girls had families, they were separated either way.

Half were sent to the brothel and the other half were sent to the kitchens to learn. The pregnant woman were made to go to Jose's house and the infants were taken to one of the last free rooms.

The storage room had to be emptied, in order for them to fit in the house.

''Were running out of room.'' Jose told her.

No one slept that night.

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[][][][][][][]  
[William]

It was an odd sight, seeing all of those people bending down in obedience. Hell, he hoped that they would at least put up a fight, but they accepted the fact he separated them from each other.

Yet none of them did, in fact, they did it like beaten dogs.

Like it or not the village needed to grow and even if Jose disagreed, the village needed to grow, however, they wouldn't get the same kind of protection, instead of scale walls they would get wooden ones made of wood and a stone one to reinforce it.

The question is where, it couldn't be inside the forest, but the more they followed the river the more they risked entering some animals territory.

Even the snow had already fallen and the ground was now covered in it, it wasn't really wintering, how could it be, the trees were still green and the animals still acted the same way. No this must have been some kind of odd storm, heavens knows that the forest is strange.

So why did Jose allow him to separated the woman and children from the rest f the group? Even as Jose stared at him, William couldn't help but smile, the boy was learning and he was learning fast.

The look in the boy's eyes said everything, they couldn't risk another betrayal and they couldn't allow people who really were asking for help to simply die. No they would do something in between, those that had any useful skills would be separated from those that didn't, he was sure that something or another would show up and it would create more work for the people, but for now, this was all they could do.

Still, his new group of boys could serve as the villages next defenders and any man that could fight would be forced to join, the hunters had proven themselves to be absolutely spectacular in both approaching an animal without being heard and killing it, without even being noticed.

He would task them with teaching the boys how to do just that. God knows that the would need it.

He wasn't a man of the faith, nor did he care to be it, but there was definitely something in this land and something watching over the village and most importantly Jose.

He let the women take the girls and the young beautiful ones, the elder ones were taken to the kitchens these were few and far between.

The fishermen took their bach and set out into the sea if there was ever a group he pitied it was this bach. The sea makes damn sure the people on them were like family and if there was just a hint of mistrust, well those men wouldn't come back.

He hadn't told Jose, but a lot of men vanished when they first were brought back the captured savages. He hadn't told Jose this, but several men had kept some of the captured savages, on the first day they set out to fish, none of the savages returned.

The same went for the hunters, but they took several of the small boys, the ones that could actually attack the people and well a lot of boys went missing and those that didn't go missing, well there is a reason they act as if they cant walk properly.

So why was he remembering this, William knew damn well that loyalty was something the people demanded and if these newcomers failed to show it, well that was their problem.

The mystery was why were the families allowed to remain, tho in all honesty William believed that Jose simply let them exist because the people hadn't attacked.

He smiled as he saw the Jose along with several men taking out a lot of his stored out foods, meats and dead animals that were hidden away for meals, that Jose and his charges would have in time.

Now the stash of food was being cut apart, in order to feed all of the people that showed up in his home. That was the ting, the house had to grow, maybe it needed to grow, perhaps to add another two rooms or add several new floors.

William exhaled letting the white mist stay in the air, if everything went okay then life would remain calm, but at least their living would improve now that they had some extra help.

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]]][][  
[Captain]  
The in was filled with voices both joyful and stupidly drunk, the smell of the cooking food, sweaty bodies of the woman, boys and men all lingered together with the smoke of the burning wood.

Bells claked and strange metals shined as a merchant tried to sell his trinkets, he smiled as he finally arrived, his men and woman followed closely behind. He could see several women repositioning their dresses, as a group of men followed them out of a room that led somewhere.

It was there amongst drunk and large breasted woman that he saw him, the Imp. Tyrion Lannister, the unwanted son of Tywin Lannister, he was drunk and for a man of his size, the captain wonders just how the Imp was able to reach between the legs of all eight women around him.

He took a seat in front of him and the Imps guard move in to cover him, yet the Imp simply shooed them away.

''What?'' The Imp asked.

''I want to know any small houses that can be reached near the sea, or be found to need food and any perishables.'' He asked.

The Imp raced his eyebrow and let out a laugh, it was both humiliating and infuriating.

''You an Ironborn, trying to become a merchant, What's next you'll try to claim my sister as your wife.'' The Imp made him.

''I know that all of the great houses have people that can both feed and trade with them, a sure measure for life. That's why I want to get in contact with the small houses.''He told the Imp.

The Imps smile vanished. ''You're not joking. You do realize that no inner house would ever hire you.'' The Imp said before he was cut off by the Captain.

''I don't want the minor houses I want the small houses.'' He told the Imp, his anger starting to come out.

''Tell me why.'' Tyrion said\demanded.

''Tell me have you ever held your boys dying body because there wasn't enough to eat or see your sister be taken by the sea. Your father killed by an invaders sword, simply because of some kings ego.'' The captain spat.

The Imp simp smiled. ''Why the Small Houses? They won't be able to afford much.'' The Imp said.

''I'm no fool, I know no grand or minor house will even consider hiring us, but the small houses they can at least be secured as business partners. Even if it means it has to be in a long term.'' The captain answers.

The Imp simply smiled. ''Eight hundred gold and I will hand you every house I'm aware of,'' Tyrion told the captain.

''Tomorrow, have a map with every name and their locations and you will get your gold.'' The captain answered the Imp.

Tyrion simply waved him away and continued with his whoring.

Unbeknownst to the captain, Tyrion had noticed the exotic look, of the woman that accompanied the Ironborn. Not only that no one would have agreed to such a deal unless they were either desperate or they had something.

He would have to work during the night, but that was for later, the day was meant for fun and he would enjoy it fully.

As they walked back to the ship, he knew that spending an unneeded amount of gold would be bad for other Ironborn he commanded a captured Galeon, one taken from his time of loyalty to the Iron Islands.

He awaited his men's arrival, if the fools listened, then there was a chance that they could finally find a real home and not just live on the sea. An Ironborn's place was at the sea, but the place of the pregnant woman and small infants was on land.

Half his men took their woman to bed soon as they were on the ship, the other half kept watch, they would take their woman at night. The woman for their part had become quiet and learned their place.

Why was he betting such on the boy, simple? Luck.

Stupid you say, look to every sailor, creator, and farmer and you will see something that is completely undeniable, call it God's grace or whatever, but a farmer would easily lose his entire harvest for one reason or another.

Ships would be lost, either to sudden storms, mutiny or a sea monster. A Maison once told him that the secret to all new creations was luck because a single grain too much or too little and the entire mix was lost.

He had seen the boy back then and in all honesty, he expected him to die, but the boy didn't die. Instead, he began to grow, granted it hadn't been very much, but it was apparent that something had happened.

Then the little ones had shown up, he knew what they were and was tempted to take them to Rober and get his reward, but he knew that just by having them. Simply reaching the king was a deadly act, many would want to claim the reward themselves.

So he left them.

Now the boy had used what he learned and built himself a small mansion, claimed a knight for himself ad built a town while killing anyone that would have fought of his influence.

There was something there, something great and he would be there, with his men or not. Should they choose to stay lost without any real home then so be it, there was no point in fighting the matter.

The night was loud but somehow quiet. No, the truth was that the port was quiet, but the town was noisy.

His men traded places and he walked in for the night.

Tyrion for his part simply took out an old map and smiled as he marked old houses. His smirk only grew not because he was giving something worth anything, but rather knowing how impoverished some of the houses really were.

Still, there was a small chance, that the captain had found something and even if he hadn't there was a chance that the small houses might get lucky. So he added some minor houses near Casterly Rock, in reality, they were soon going to vanish, so there was nothing lost.

They would serve as simple pawns, easy to be watched over and if they found fortune. Still, he knew his father would make sure to get involved and help the Lannister name grow.

Tyrion took out two more maps, one of the known houses up north and another of the lands of Esos, information was power and he would use these to secure that the good captain would hold loyalty to house Lannister alone.

He wasn't stupid, but as long as the captain stayed in good position with house Lannister and if the captain did have something, then t would benefit them both.

The next day both men met at the same inn and the exchange was carried out, however Tyrian waved map that had all of the small houses of the north, but he wanted the captains word in front of his men, that if fortune smiled at him, then he would seek House Lannister to work with.

The captain simply accepted the deal, under the condition that House Lannister didn't demand or want to receive everything first, no soldier or whatever would try to force his or his men's abidance.

The Imp accepted, but asked ''Where are you headed now, I mean after contacting the small houses?'' the answer actually shocked him.

''Sothoryos.'' the captain said, as he walked away, putting the map in his shirt.

''I have a map of Esos,'' Tyrion said, as the captain walked away.

''Keep it, I want nothing with that land.'' the captain said finally vanishing.

Tyrion smiled, yes this was something new.

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][][]  
[William]  
Slow, Jose and himself were once again getting the scales The dragon was almost gone, it had really been a blessing. Truthfully either Jose of himself should have stayed behind to see over the people, but if the villagers couldn't defend themselves, then there wasn't a point in defending them.

It was getting colder and they couldn't afford for any of the newcomers to get sick, if a plague showed up, that was it, there weren't any doctors and only a few healers the natives had was all there is.

He exhaled and noticed that Jose had begun to pull on something that was sticking out of the ground. He went to see what it was and noticed a piece of scale sticking out, he was about to tell the boy to leave it alone, but he knew that boys would be boys.

However, when the boy managed to pull it out, was the same moment the ground began to shake. Jose began to run, his eyes wide with fear, the rumbling sound increased sounding as if it was thunder.

He grabbed the load of scales and ran seeing some of the scales drop, but he couldn't stop to pick them up. Then he saw it, the corps fell into the ever-growing hole, the sound finally stopped.

''William.' Jose called barely escaping the hole.

''William, get over here,'' Jose ordered him, his eyes wide with both fear and shock.

William walked to see just what the boy was looking at, briefly pulling Jose back so that he wouldn't fall and it was there that William saw something that shouldn't be. Thousands of dragon corpses some ground into dust, only small pieces of them remained.

Others completely intact and some that looked as if they were to come to life at any moment.

It started to snow again.

"Leave it, for now, let's take back what we have. " William told Jose.

The boy just looked at him.

"There's no point in us losing what we already have, we will come back with help tomorrow," William told the boy, though in all honesty, Jake would be their only companion, well him and the kids.

There was no way, the villagers hadn't seen the clouds of dirt and snow fly into the air and if they hadn't heard the sound, well then they couldn't hear anything at all.

The walking to the village was certainly livelier, a complete contrast to the quiet forest they had entered. No doubt the animals had been frightened by all of the noise.

There was one upside, with everything he had seen then they had plenty of building material.

The walls needed to be remade, stretch them out a bit and build towers that stuck out for archers, Jose's house well that needed to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Five maybe six more floors up and a few dozen more rooms at the bottom.

He didn't care what the boy though, the house had become a citadel, it had become a sign of power to the people living behind the walls.

Hell, the newcomers even looked at it with both fear and admiration.

It had been two days since their arrival and if William were to put it, they had become owners of a broken people. There was no doubt that had they been rejected, then they would have just laid over and died.

Those that could speak the language, said that they had been under constant attack by someone, who or what that someone was, they refused to talk about it.

So far everything had been going well.

Their food supply had taken a hit but the men were quick learners and so they replenished the supplies soon enough.

Still, the agreement with the captain was that the entrance to the forest would be given to them, so all that was left was to build down the river.

Only a fool went into the forest thinking he could win. Hell, not even the animals went deeper and they were right at the entrance to the place.

Still, the trees had finally begun to change color, it was amazing how quickly that had happened, one day they were green the next they were orange, red and brown.

The newcomers stayed in the kitchen, no it was more of an inn now. Hell if they added a few rooms the place would be a large building, that would cause some problems.

So the plan remained, build down the river a wooden wall on both sides and let the people live there.

It was cruel but they were running out of the room. Plus if there were still scales left then they would use them to reinforce the natives wooden walls.

Yeah, life was good and it was getting better.

Still like always Jake was watching over the kids, like a hen that wouldn't leave its hatchlings.

The woman should really learn to act more like a man if she wanted people to believe she was, well a man.

He stopped as he saw something new, one of the giant horses was tied to a large rock and as odd as it seemed it was digging a large ditch.

Immediately after a freshly cut tree trunk was put in every fifteen steps and rocks were thrown in, at the bottom of the trunk. And a mother tree trunk was thrown into the hole.

The thing stuck out, but it kept the ones on each side standing firm. This was placed between the land and the river.

"Good I wouldn't have to think of everything." William thought to himself.

"Now if only the natives could learn to do this" William though, as he saw that it was some of the people from Westeros that were doing this.

He left Jose behind to deal with whatever needed to be dealt with and went to go check out the area.

Jake unusually took to walking right behind the boy, the woman couldn't even hide how wet she was.

The people looked at him their eyes were filled with both fear and acceptance, in all honesty, he didn't care.

"How is it coming along,"William asked.

"Lord William sir, we are making a good pace. Soon we will put more logs in and be done. " a man answered him.

"Good good, just one thing. I want a stone wall behind this one and a watchtower on every corner.

Oh and add to that, see to it that you can make it so water goes into the river instead of the other way around.

If you don't know how just ask Jose, he's the one that made it to the town. " William ordered the man and the man's smile vanished.

"Lord William, please reconsider, just to put in the stone wall would mean we have to make the wall even longer, just so there is enough room and if we add any new animals and houses the size would be." the man protested.

"This doesn't have to be built in a day or a month for that matter, but only a fool would cut down on defenses," William answers the man.

In all honesty, he wanted to build in the area where Jose had destroyed the other village, but the boy refused. Saying that there was something evil there.

The next couple of days went by like this and life was calm. Jose and he only went to get more scales when they ran out, they did this because they didn't want anyone to see where they were going.

Only Jake knew and that woman, was at the point of getting on all fours and barking if the boy so much as said the word.

So she was no danger.

At night he felt his many women's body's and enjoyed every one of them. They knew their place and did their duty well, he came home to a warm meal and a hit bed every day.

Still, today was the day they explored what they found like always the forest was quiet and only the crunching sound of snow being crushed underneath their feet could be heard.

Each step seemed to shake the ground beneath them, as the snow repositioned itself, beneath their feet.

Like a child, Jose jumped down without looking.

"William! William!" Jose screamed.

He ran as best as he could, but the snow ether made him slip or stuck to his metal boots. But when he finally made it, his heart nearly stopped.

There like a mountain was no beast but a creature of pure destruction dead, it wasn't the creature that scared him, but rather what could have killed it.

It was a dragon, but it made the one they had been taking the scales from seeming like a hatchling.

Behind it was a cave and like the boy he was Jose went in.

For a long moment Jose vanished, but when he came back he had his hands full of gold.

"William gets over here, the entire cave is filled with the stuff," Jose called to him.

He quickly followed and found himself wide-eyed once again. Gold from the ground to celling, the light coming through the cave entrance, made the coins shine deeper into the cave then they normally should.

It was miles and miles of gold coins.

William felt himself smile, they were rich, but then the smile vanished as he remembered there was nowhere to spend the gold on.

Instead, he patted Jose on the shoulder and made him drop the coins he had, they looked thru the broken scales and filled their load.

Neither one of them talked about what they found.

Just like that another month had passed

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Speech change

The air was wet and lingered with the smell of mud, the sun only made itself known thru bits and pieces that the trees allowed it to. Her home was small and could be only called a small cottage and yet there in front of her, a man stood, one that wouldn't bend to her.

Her land was small barely larger than three villages and yet he stood there offering a trade deal, exotic meats, and trinkets in exchange for workers to mand the land near the river, not only that but a trend for times to come, food for loyalty.

It was a stupid deal really, yet it was a smart one.

Her land was at the entrance or near the entrance to several small houses an ideal place, however, small houses are little more than common people and have little to no gold or silver, yet the offer was coming to them.

She could see the large breasted woman next to him, her thighs were thick firm, but she had small signs of being with child, yes the woman had a baby in the belly, no doubt being covered by a piece of cloth over her breast and some sort of skin to keep her ass and spot from showing made the man ravage her so much.

The man's eyes were cold and calculating his eyes bore into her despite being the ruler over the land, Ironborn were men that would burn everything and take what they want, yet he stood there taking her silence as a hint of her refusing.

''Come back in a week'' was all she said.

The man simply walked away, his step was firm and showed no signs of being an act, no this man knew his worth and walked in a form that told everyone he should be respected, yet his men were the same and the fact that all of the women with them had so little on said several things.

The men could afford to have a woman with them, there was no issue with feeding and taking care of them, considering how well the women's health was. That alone said a lot, no doubt the captain has a large supply of food available.

The problem was that if she simply agreed the doors would be open to a business, one that would be extremely beneficial to her people and the small houses. She knew that any other place would give him the same answer and it was the fact that the good captain was still looking that proved her though.

She began writing letters and sent them to every small house she knew of, they had a week at the very least, more if the good captain kept searching for people that would work with him. However there was still the danger that someone that had the gold would hire him so the small houses had to work quickly, they may not have gold or silver but they had material, so they had to act quickly and find what they had of value.

The flapping of wings caught her attention a raven had been sent back to her, she took the letter tied to its leg, it seems the captain has been rather busy, word has been getting around the small houses that a ship captain was searching for buyers of exotic meats.

Materials- workers-loyalty and so on in exchange for food.

The letter also had word from several small people, the lesser houses have started to notice, they needed to figure out what they had and what could be used quick. She called to one of her servants, one of the few she had and tasked the boy with keeping an eye on the captain and his crew.

[William]

The morning was cold and in all honesty, he was tempted to stay in bed, most of the little ones stayed indoors and in fact, Jose and Jake had left earlier than usual considering how bad the weather was getting.  
Slowly his eyes began to realize the mistake that was, the mist had begun to move in, normally this wouldn't have been a problem, however, it was how fast it was moving in. It took seconds but the entire town vanished before his eyes.

He stood there listening to the frightened voices of the people and the animals how the snow crunched underneath their feet, William, however, didn't move, he just listened.

William felt his instincts flare, there was something inside the village something that shouldn't be there. The sounds of giant insect shells hitting each other as something hit them, an alarm to alert the people when something managed to get past the walls.

The sounds of something hitting the roof of one of the houses, he exhaled awaiting an attack as he took his hand to his sword. William could hear some people scream but other than that, their voices remained.

The fog left just as fast as it had come in and William was reminded that no amount of protection would keep the town safe. Footprints covered the snow all of it, whatever it was or they were, they had taken advantage of the fogs natural cover to move from one side of the forest to another.

Whatever the animals were, if they had been animals at all, had no intention of eating, the village was an easy target and yet the only harm done was men thrown across the land.

Williams md briefly turned to Jose, but knowing that boy he was probably holding onto Jake like to lovers embracing one another. Williams instincts screamed and he quickly drew his sword, it was this move that saved his life as a spider the size of a wagon jumped at him.

The spider impaled itself on his sword, but the scream of a man made him turn his head, it was the smith that had been repairing Jose's hammer. The giant creature was about to finish the man when a large scale struck its side making the spider loose interest in the Smith and turn to kill the attacker.

William knew instantly who it was, Jose ad made it back no doubt he had returned as soon as the fog vanished. The spider struck the scale, but the scale proved its strength and didn't break, the Smith ran but soon returned hitting the spider with a large hammer.

All around William could see the hunters raining death at the spiders using arrows to pierce the creatures heads. The men soon began to look all over the village and surprisingly no one was lost, the homes were all inspected and true enough not a single life had been lost.

They had put down the attack fast enough, at least William hoped so. The sounds of branches breaking made him turn around and the screams of a guard called to him, William took one last look towards Jose and saw the by finally retaking his hammer along with one that had an even fierce appearance.

A large dragon stood in the snow, its eyes were madly filled with bloodlust, the creature grind its fangs covered in blood, while in its mouth hanged a basilisk dangled from its neck. The creature seemed to enjoy the sheer look of terror from the men, yet its eyes remained on him, it was strange but the creature walked slowly to the walls and when it was not an arms reach away, it dropped the snake and liked Williams' face.

The village was quiet and the only thing that could be heard was the hissing sounds of the may small dragon-like beasts that Jose had under his control.

The creature turned to look at Jose and the boy didn't so much as flinch, in fact, the boy stood firm his two hammers in hand and the giant scale tied to his back by giant spiders thread.

The creature actually seemed to laugh, it was at this moment that dozens of small flying lizards flew down and acted as if they were protecting the boy, but the creature only laughed more. Then they heard a loud growl echoed, followed by another and the creature left, leaving behind its kill.

Both wolves made themselves known, behind them several smaller ones some equal in size others no bigger than regular animals. The two beast cared not for the walls and simply walked over them, they liked Jose's face as well as his own before simply walking away to the other side of the village.

Jose opened the door and let the smaller one's pas, any attempt to grow or attack was quickly put down by a grow from the two and the beast soon vanished to the other side of the river.

William smelled blood.

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][][][]  
[Jose]

It was earlier than usual but he couldn't sleep, the whole fiasco with the dragon, left everyone shaking, everyone that saw it anyways. The rest of the day had gone fast, it was a good thing that nothing else happened, so all that was left was cleaning up.

The kids were asleep and Jake well the girl snored a lot, still, he walked over her sleeping form and walked out. Spitfire jumped on his back, the little guy really grew in the short amount of time he had him, for a moment the two of them watched the forest as noisy as it was and they both made their way into town.

He had no real destination, in fact, he just wanted to clear his mind, so he walked and walked until he stopped in front of a familiar looking house. It had changed long gone where the holes on the walls, replaced by dragon scales, both the wood and a lot of the ropes used giant spider thread to hold them together while applying a type of giant armadillo shells as a type of concrete.

The mixture was almost as strong as the dragon scales, but still, the scales had the added bonus of being fireproof, well the older ones, his hammers used the weaker scales as a coating for the grip.

He stood there for a long moment and remember the woman that helped him out however she could.

''If you stand there, then mom will get mad at you.'' a small voice says behind him.

He turned around and saw the owner of the voice, it was one of the children the woman had, the eldest of the boys ''Hey.'' Jose says to the boy.

''Come on, mom probably knows your out here already.'' the boy answers him, as he opens the door letting the light of the fireplace seep out into the dark night outside.

The house was larger than it had been before, there was a table and some chairs even. The woman was working with some sort of batter, no doubt making some sort of cakes, she was sweating and her hair was a mess, but all around her the children and their pets were playing with each other.

She looked up and gasped.

''Jose, what are you doing there come in and close the door,'' she said to him.

He walked in and closed the door behind him, the kids all ran u to him and began to put spitfire, the cheeky lizard actually purred, bathing on the children's attention.

''So what brings you here?'' she asked him.

''...Trying to clear my head.'' Jose answered her, she smiled and looked at him, she wiped her hands on her dress and walked up to him.

She took him into her arms and hugged him, Jose could feel her breast against his face, he could also smell her sweet, yet the woman corested his face soon after and kissed his forehead.

''Tell me how's your shoulder?'' she asked him.

''It doesn't hurt anymore,'' he answered her, yet she reaches down his shirt and picked it up, Jose could see the kids' eyes as wide as they all gasped seeing his scars.

She kissed his shoulder and embraced him like a mother would embrace her children. ''My dear King, the weight of the world doesn't have to be on you, you have already done enough. ''She said to him.

''Look at the village and how much it's grown, there is plenty to eat, we all have water and we are both safe and protected. I see the boy that came out of the woods, that took in the children that were abandoned by the woman who foolishly went into the woods alone.''

''Back then everyone feared you and stayed away from you and yet you lived, when you had nothing to eat all we gave you was scraps and you paid us back with entire beasts, we gave you broken tools and you gave us better homes.

You have already done enough.'' she said to him.

Jose simply hugged her and the children laughed as they saw them in each other's embrace.

''Thank you,'' Jose said to her as he took his shirt and covered his scar cover form.

''Do you know anything about my mother or father?'' Jose asked her, yet the woman just hugged him tighter.

''One day you just came out of the forest,'' she answered him.

''...How about.'' Jose began, but she cut him off.

''No the woman went into the forest and never came back,'' she told him, knowing he was about to ask her about the children's mother.

Jose kissed her on the forehead and said his goodbyes, he began to walk again, she offered him to accompany her and her family for something to eat, but he refused, so he just kept walking until he was back home.

So he looked at his tools, he had to take out the tools from his workshop in order to make room for the children they had captured and he began to work, he treated wood with fire and began to make simple gears made of wood.

There was no reason to do this, he just needed to keep his mind occupied on something.

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He used basilisk scales to scratch at the wood cutting out the design of the gears and let the ashes wash into the shape of the gears. The first one would only be for show, so he would use a piece of charcoal to cut out the design from it.

Just to make the gears, he hit the wood with a cincel and finally putting his hammer to good use again, it was never really meant for fighting anyway. The wood was as big as his fingernail to elvo, from side to side and it was around the size as his entire arm, but the biggest issue was cutting a hole in the center just so something could be put in them.

The first attempt broke one of the gears shattering the thing completely, so he decided that putting a hole thru the entire thing was too dangerous. The second attempt cracked the other one, so he decided that if there was a large ball of wood somewhere along the way he wouldn't break it, the thing would just crack the gear.

The final attempt was a whole half way thru the gear and a piece of wood that made them spin at the same time. He hadn't noticed but his hands were cut up again, still, he needed to make four more and by the time the sun was finally up in the sky, he had eight gears with two pieces of wood attached to each pair.

The last thing he made was the easiest considering he already had it made, four smooth pieces of metal that were used for holding up the tubs, he used the old ones they were bigger than they should be but the would work, this left the gears in the air and freed them to move.

The rest was just getting fur wheels, but the blacksmith already had some thrown aside, so he grabbed whatever wood he could get his hands on and placed them on top of each other halfway. The giant spider thread was used to tie them together and it was the fact that it was so sticky and strong that actually made it all work.

It was bloky and in all honesty it could never hold more than a week and that was if he was lucky, there was a space between the wall of scales and the wall the people were building, still by the time he was done he had a complete bridge that reached the other side of the river.

Jose was tired, but when he stopped to look at his work a pat on the back made him turn around, it was William looking at the bridge he had built.

'' It's weak, none of the animals can get thru,'' William said to him.

''They're not supposed to, its made so we can make a better one on top of it and if luck is on our side we can make the village reach the other side that way we don't risk going further down the river or going deeper into the forest,'' Jose told William, the old man just smiled.

''Good idea,'' William said as he looked at the bridge and how it reached the other side.

A smack on the back of the head made Jose turn around, Jake was standing there her face had a deep frown she had a wooden bowl filled with a type of stew made from a giant bird it had a white color, the spices were probably made of bugs.

''You left without saying a word.I tough something happened.'' Jake said to him, as she hoped the bowl at him.

He took it and began to drink the bowl's contents, it was warm and considering he wasn't working anymore, his body was finally beginning to feel the cold. Jake for her part simply walked onto the bridge and began to cross it.

''The same rules should apply, but we should be careful. The animals seem to be moving because of the weather, on the luss side we now have plenty of room.'' William said as he messed with Jose's hair.

''William could you help me carry this,'' Jose said as he pointed at the remaining gears, wheels and metal pieces.

When they reached the other side both William and Jake picked up the bridge allowing him to put the gears and wheels.

''What's this for anyway,'' Willam asked Jose.

''There are ships coming once in a while, we can move the bridge and let them pass,'' Jose answered Willam.

William for his part simply smiled he saw that more and more people were starting to gather in front of the bridge and raised an eyebrow as he saw a fisherman throw a net into the water when he stopped halfway at the bridge.

''Looks like it's already getting used,'' William said with a large smile and smacking Jose on the back. ''... We have a deal with that captain and you can bet going to ant both sides of the river.'Willam told Jose.

''Let him have it, their way he wants the entrance to the forest and the very connection to the ocean, as long as he doesn't demand more from us there isn't any problem, we just have to move down the river and we were already planning to do it anyway,'' Jose answered William.

As odd as it seemed the hunters began to move in, they hadn't left the incident with the lizard really shocked everyone so no one went hunting or anything outside of the village. The men began to look at the ground and from what Jose could see they were discussing the recent footprints and looking for older ones.

They made a line on the dirt, it seemed to be the same distance from the first as the village use to be before the walls had been put up. The rest of the day went by with the people digging holes and putting up a makeshift wall and people did what they did best so they simply moved in.

This gave the wall builders a breath and they really didn't feel pressured to make the walls as fast as possible, but it seemed to make several of the boys join them in the work. The people that had asked for help actually seemed to enjoy their lives even as they tried to understand how things were done.

All of this happened on the same day, things happen when people had to rely on each other and as strange as it seemed a sense of community began to set in.

As the days went by, the hunters went to go search for trees that could be cut down and used for houses that the people could use, again the scales saved everyone and more than one house that had no walls or windows and were nothing more than a roof made of dragon scales were built.

They were fast and easy to make, the people liked them, however, problems began to start when word began to go around that the brothel was the original one and understandably the people with families didn't like it.

Jose for his part just dismissed them and told the people that they would either have a home or sleep in the cold outside, the people stopped complaining. The real issue was getting the natives to use the outhouse, in all honesty, it wasn't a big deal the Beatles dealt with the filth.

William for his part tighten the boys training and insisted that the hunters take some every time they went to go in their hunts, The old knight had made plans to grow the walls to the very edge of the forest on another side of the river, his plan was simple but somehow seemed effective.

A wall of wood and stone with several watchtowers headed and a type of stone spike to protect the defenders, as well as several arrows slits and some kind of opening at the bottom of the men to throw things at the enemy.

Behind that a small town\village and behind that a wall of scales, it would have the same defenses including the stone wall behind it but with the added bonus of the dragon scales, the walls would be the same /all the way around both on the riverside and the side that looked at the forest.

The old man looked frustrated considering that Just by putting a wall around Jose's house would have made the place infinitely safer, but the place was right at the forest entrance so there was no point in doing that.

The animal in there was the best line of defense\danger.

Jose for his part was getting tired, every day was a workload and added to that people came to him with their problems and expected him to deal with them. However he smiled when he saw the kids running around playing with the other kids, their silver almost white hair stuck out along with their lighter skin, but long gone were the times the kids were separated from everyone.

However, the problems didn't stop.

William insisted that the house needed several more floors and some capable defenses and defenders for those defenses, plus all of the knights he was training would need a place to stay and if he wanted to keep the habit of keeping the infant children they captured, they would need rooms for the woman that would take care of them.

Jose hated it, because he knew William was right, but it was the way his friend said it that troubled him. Williams words were like he anticipated for them to be attacked and Jose to retaliate, no he knew that sooner or later Jose would invade someplace or people would simply come to him searching for a safe place.

It seemed the house needed to be remodeled again, this time however it would be the last time but after this rooms would be added on top of one another, sure i would be made into a bigger building after this but that was it, no more could he make the house any bigger.

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[Speech change]

She stood there waiting for the captain, the servant boy had returned every night and he informed her that the captain had waited on the ship for the entire week, during that time they brought down strange beast slaughtered them and ate them.

The captain's story about having access to a large quantity of exotic food seemed to all be true. Tho it was a short time several small lords gathered here and there to discuss the situation, there is little chance the trade deals would go anywhere further into the country.

Still none of them had the luxury nor the chance to betray one another, no it was up to the ones that had access to the rivers to secure the captain, however, they had little if any gold and whatever they could trade was so small in quantity that it was almost humiliating.

The captain stepped thru the door and she took a deep breath hoping that she didn't end up losing more than she could gain.

''I've waited the week.'' the captain said, his voice as firm and filled with impatience.

She could see his men standing at the entrance they were ruff like an ax made of stone, effective but lacked the fine tuning that the required.

''I want to know what exactly you are offering, you already said you offered food but you have yet to tell us what kind of food you are offering, not only that but you have yet to say what else we could benefit by making a deal with you,'' she answered him, trying to sound as calm as possible, even though her heart threatened to burst out her chest.

''Bring the features and all of the other stuff.'' the captain ordered his men, the men immediately walked away yet they soon came back carrying several bundles of different materials.

She felt her eyes widen, she had no idea what she was looking at. No that wasn't right, she knew what she was looking at but she couldn't understand how different it was, feathers the size of her hand, scales of a different size they were obviously from different animals and a strange silk that could be used for different things.

''We can kill them on the way here or we can bring them here alive.'' the captain told her, as his men bought in several cages. They were covered with several clothes that kept the creatures hidden inside the cages when they were uncovered she felt her heart stop.

Inside one of the cage was a bird the size of a large dog, its beak was tied with a large rope the creature's legs were tied keeping it from moving, she could see the bird's wings were broken. The next cage had a large lizard, one word came to mind, dangerous, its claws looked like they were made to tear people apart and the teeth, they were razor sharp, but its eyes held nothing but hate.

The next cage had an animal she couldn't even, she didn't even know what it was, the creature had the wings and head of an eagle and the body of a lion, she would have said it was a griffin but those didn't exist. The last and final cage had a large snake tied with several ropes, tying its head to its tail and body.

''I know you people have been talking to each other, there is no way you couldn't have, we offer food and material. We want the same from them and you but if you can't give us that give us a place we can unload and load our merchandise and gold.'' the captain said to her, his eyes showed that he wasn't lying to her.

''I can give you a place to come and go but I want you to take your load to every small house near the river you have already met with,'' she told him finally making her offer.

''Explain.'' the captain demanded.

''You can't reach the inner houses the more time you leave those animals unfed and the material unattended the worst their condition gets. I will speak in your behavior to the inner houses but you can handle yourself with the other small houses near the river, you can trust that if they like what you have they will speak to the inner small houses on your behalf,'' she answered him.

''In all of this was is it that you want.'' she asks the captain.

''To live.'' the captain answered her.

''Leave half your cargo here.'' she closes her eyes remembering to be as detailed as possible ''and leave them inside their cage,'' she said to the captain, the captain agreed and left the animals behind taking several bags of gold and silver with him.

''This is the only time it will be this cheap, get a taste and see what you want.'' the captain said before leaving.

Soon after her servant brought in several barrels and sacks filled with silks-feathers-shells-scales and bundles that had small toy dolls that closed their eyes when they placed on their backs and open them when they were stood back up.

[Captain]  
The woman was an idiot, her panties were stuck to her wet with sweat and fear she tried to look calm but the bitch was trembling so much that she was easy to read, still, he accomplished his goal and had them wanting what he had.

They knew how to get in touch with him so if they decided to do business with him or not only counted on the people further inland, he knew that the people would be talking among themselves and start making plans with what he had given them.

All that was left was take what he had onboard to the other small houses and wait to see how many of them decided to do business with him. Still, the woman had made clear that he had to win over the rest of the small houses near the rivers if he wanted to win any real hold on any real business.

The nights began to get colder and he began to notice the heavy white clouds of winter creeping in, the weather would serve him well, he briefly thought about the boy and what changes the town might have when he finally returned. No doubt he had to take in his own stone to build a proper fortress, only a fool would go into that forest and he wasn't willing to risk his men venturing into that cursed place for a bunch of rocks.

Still, he needed proper materials men to man ships and ships for those men, no that was a problem for later one thing at a time, right now he had to drop off his cargo and retrieve his gold.

He had a chance to take his cargo to Esos but he knew that that was not any real business, no they would either chose to buy his cargo or not. His men never took the ship anywhere near Slaverbay, he had sent the captured men in cages to land and his men returned with bags of gold but when they offer the [perishables, they were denied any business.

Still, he offered the cargo knowing it would be denied and immediately set forth to Westeros.

His mind went back to Sothoryos and the many islands near it, there were plenty of beautiful women his men could take and if there was a business there, then maybe they wouldn't raid the place…...but if there was no said business well that village-town or city didn't deserve to exist.

The islands were not as defended as the lands of Westeros, but he was trying to stay away from the typical Ironbornbehavior…...well not all of them, there were several acts that were useful.

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All the meetings went the same way from time to time he would see a raven coming or going no doubt the small houses were talking to one another, good that meant more business and with it more demands for whatever.

Sothoryos is not a place where just anyone can live, that's one reason he still went to that village the further south one went the more dangerous the place became one time he had seen nearly twenty ships go that way and only one return. The men spoke about creatures like men with horns on their heads, lizard men and pig-like creatures.

A boy that came out f the forest, his clothes were strange and much too large for him, he could summon fire despite not knowing how to make it, yet the forest attacked him but it never killed him, now that boy was leading his own village and it was growing faster than it should.

He shook his head at the thought of it, that sounded like a story for the age of heroes, a mysterious land filled with savage people that survived in a land filled with strange beasts and dangerous creatures.

He tru three silver coins to a representative of the Alchemist group and was surprised when the man refused any more than it, even tho he told the man about the scale walls and strange materials that came from animals.

The deal the boy had was simple any inventions he made was half owned by the alchemist and considering that the things he mentioned were all from living or dead animals or were made by some of the native people then they didn't count.

The cold air touched his skin as a large splash made him look to see what it was and for the briefest of moments he stared at a sight he once believed to be a simple story told to children, his men soon accompanied him their eyes wide, a sea dragon dancing in the water going up and down the water, spinning and twirling as it swam about.

It was a sign perhaps from the Drowned God or the Storm God, in all honesty, he didn't know but why had the creature come forth now, did it react to his thought of the boy? or perhaps it was nothing more than a simple coincidence.

Still, no ship set sail and this that were going about simply turned and returned to the docs, none daring to catch the dragon's attention, yet even as ships passed it the creature simply ignored them, it danced as if celebrating something.

For a moment the dragon leaped into the air and he saw the creatures serpent-like body, its fins were the size of massive wings the tail was nothing more than a large fin whose spikes seemed as sharp as swords, but its scales resembles blue ice that reflected the light.

''Something's changed.'' the alchemist said.

He turned to look at him, tho the man shouldn't be on his ship he didn't word it, not because of fear but rather because the alchemist was known to meddle with magic even tho they denied it. They stood there watching the creature dance and after an hour or so the creator vanished beneath the waves below, just as quietly as it had emerged from it.

No one set sail that day either not daring to catch the creature's attention should it still be dancing beneath the waves or fearful of some sort of storm that might be coming. The wind just became colder as the day went by and by the time the sun had set snow began to fall.

''It was an ice dragon,'' the men said ''It called the cold.'' they uttered in fear.

In all honesty he didn't care, he stopped believing in Gods long ago, but still, he learned to respect them, even if he didn't believe in them. The alchemist had left long ago before the sun had set, the man didn't dare stay anywhere near the sea if the captain even hinted at setting sail.

He turned to look at the sea and noticed how the stars above seemed to join the sea below, black skies joined with thick white snow clouds and the strange glittering of the stars mixing with them. It was a strange combination something that shouldn't be, it was calm-quiet and somehow uneasy - yet disturbingly unrelenting with the strange mood it gave.

Still, he would set sail the moment the sun came up and he would get the load he needed.

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Again Jake and himself were getting more scales, people had already tried to follow them but as they went deeper into the forest each and every one of them lost their nerve and turned back, so it was Jake and himself.

They were forced to use pieces of wood on their feet, the snow was now almost unbearable on their feet so they had to figure out something or else they would feet would freeze. Slowly the trees were losing their leaves long gone were their orange-brown-red colors and with them the animals that lingered around.

Still, Jose didn't really know just how far deep into the forest the Dragon Cemetery really was, now he knew just how lucky he and the rest of them were not to be eaten, not even the villagers that had attacked them before was so far in.

Still in the short time of the cemeteries discovery, they had found several things about these scales, the smaller and softer ones were easily bent or broken, gold colored ones were easily bent and were good for decoration- red was sharpest and could be used for armored gloves- green almost made a person vanish into the forest, that is if one ignored that persons head and feet.

However the black scales were the strongest, however, the older the scales got the stronger they became and the more they resisted fire, regardless of their color, however at a certain age the scales could be molded or blended into something.

His hammers handle was proof of this.

The light of day seemed to get shorter as the clouds covered more and more of the sky every day, Jose hated to admit it but he hoped the merchant would comeback this time, they needed warm clothing and the forest animals were ill-suited for the weather.

The skins were god for warm weather and when it was raining, they weren't good for the cold, unfortunately, a lot of the houses needed to replace the wood or skins they used and since they saw the scales lasted longer, they asked for them, it was honestly a better option to give it to them, than having those people freeze.

In all honesty, a lot of the scale houses lasted longer because of how near they were to the water, the wood rotted quicker, it was like having stones or concrete made houses.

Still, they were almost done Jose turned to look at Jake and noticed how her silver\white hair seemed to almost vanish alongside the snow, her purple eyes almost glimmer as their eyes met, her face turned bright red and she tried to hide her face behind her hands, as she covered it with them

Like it was usual they now each had a torch with them for heat and a signal in case it got dark all of a sudden, the clouds would cover the sun and it became dark from time to time and that was dangerous, just because some animals migrated others didn't.

They were just about to take their load and go back to the town when the temperature began to drop, the clouds were about to cover the sun again, however, Jose felt his blood run cold, hiding behind the snow was something he hadn't seen in a long time.

So he did the one thing he could, he ran, Jose didn't care he was just leaving the scales to be lost in the snow or that the fire they had with them wouldn't last, no all Jose knew was that he needed to hide fast.

He took Jakes hand and an into the cave quickly taking one of the largest scales and using it to cover the cave's entrance, he covered Jakes mouth silencing her and they both listened to the world around them, even as everything became dark.

They sat there in silence with only the fires light and listened to the snow crunch under some large beasts feet,they heard how it sniffed the air and how it slammed into the dragon scale when it found them, its body to large to fit thru the entrance and too impatient to simply pull the scale off.

Jose took the torch and prepared to use it, he noticed how the fire seemed to be dying off but he hoped it would last, then it happened only lasted an instant, but the creature shot a theme and her put the torchlight between them.

For some reason the light seemed to hurt it, Jose could see nothing of the thing had really changed its fur was still black as night and its eyes were as white as if they were a pair of full moons.

The creature roared in pain seeing the light and backed away from the cave's mouth, neither Jose nor Jake dared to step or simply walk even when the sun came back out, the just stood there, their hearts pounding.

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They stood there for more than an hour perhaps less, yet neither one of them dared to say a word and with the fire slowly burning out they silently agreed to run for it, Jake looked at him her eyes wide even as he took one of his two hammers and handed it to her.

They were like a pair of scared rabbits sticking their heads out of a hole in the dirt, the creature was gone its footprints were all over the place, no sound- no smell- not even the signs of burning fur, just an endless silence and a forest covered in snow.

They walked quietly and found the load of scales, they had left behind and briefly debated whether they should take it, still the scales were too valuable to leave behind and if the creature was hunting nearby, then they were even more precious then they were before.

''They walked quietly carrying the precious material until Jake finally said something. ''What was that,'' Jake said, her voice was a whisper.

''That was the reason why I sleep with fire,'' Jose answered her, he took a deep breath and walked forward, the balance lingered until he spoke again.  
'' The scar the one on my back, it did that. Back when I was younger the thing chased me down and if it hadn't been for the animals in the forest it would have killed me.''

Jake felt Jose stop and her eyes widened at the sight of something that child her to the core, it was a man he was moving the lines of the road, several others were with him, each as thin as bones.  
Jose's eyes were locked onto a man who had in his arms a young girl, the man turned and looked at him, he smiled and let out a /slight voice that made the other men turn to look at Jose and Jake.

''Get ready.'' Jose ordered Jake as he dropped the scales and grabbed his remaining hammer.

Jake took the one she had and prepared herself as the crunching sounds of snow breaking under several peoples feet and Jake shook as she realized that there are more people coming, slowly the two of them backed into each other and in an instant, they were swarmed by people neither of them ever saw before.

Jose swing his hammer hitting anyone that came near him, he didn't even slow down even as the blood of the men splashed covering him, Jake screamed as she hit over and over again breaking men's skulls and ribs.

Jose gasped quickly exhausting with every swing of his hammer, however, he knew that with every man that bled meant the greater danger he and Jake were in, Jake however simply wanted the men to go away.

Soon they were both tired and could no longer lift their weapons and they found themselves completely surrounded by people both men and woman they looked at the two hungrily and then it happened, it started with a hissing and a light grow.

''When it starts to run to the village screw the scales,''Jose told Jake, as an animal ran quickly from one side to another, yet it wasn't just one side to another, from above them the snow was falling from the trees.

They both just ran.

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No, they didn't run they fell repeatedly slipping on the snow and narrowly avoiding the spotted lizards, it could be called a miracle in disguise considering that the people that ran with them were torn apart one by one, soon the light of the torches in the distance could be sen.

But they were both tired and could barely move anymore, all it took was an instant and Jose soon found himself pulled up onto one of the trees, a hand covered his mouth across from him Jose could see jake in front of him, a hunter had his hand over her mouth, it was amazing but the men could really move completely unheard.

The men that were running with them, soon saw the villages entrance but even as they ran one by one they were picked of either by one of the lizards or a giant snake. Those that hadn't been eaten soon reached the black scaled walls and were put down by arrows.

The hunter's hands were firm and kept tightly around Jakes mouth as well as his own, Jose could feel that they were releasing the pressure from their hands and felt as the man holding him began to move, taking full advantage of the trees and jumping to the safety behind the town's walls.

''Chief and wife good.''said the man that was holding Jose in a broken language similar to the one Jose used.

William soon ran up to them and raved Jake's face pressing both of her cheeks and seeing if she was hurt, the man that was with her told William everything and Jose was actually surprised that William understood everything the man said.

''So you were attacked when you were coming back'' Willam told Jose.

''So you have people spying on us.'' was all Jose said.

''When it got dark, I sent people to go get you, figured that you might have gotten lost,'' William answered Jose.

''Chief, it was a clan that eats people when food becomes low.'' said the hunter that was with Jake.

''How can they run out of food? I mean it's running around everywhere.''Jose said.

''Not everyone has our kind of luck,'' William said.

''William, it was them moved the lines, I saw a few of them doing it,'' Jose informed Wiliam.

''... You two can't go in alone anymore.'' William immediately answered ''But right now go wash up and get a change of clothes. William said to Jose and Jake, unknown to the two, however, a lot of the people had their eyes locked on Jakes right arm, they noticed that she now had one of Joses two hammers.

[Speech change]  
The meat-scales-feather and other material soon proved themselves to be a blessing if the captain kept his word, he would soon return with enough food that the people could live on. The spider's silk was treated and proved itself to be ideal for clothing and luxury materials, ropes that glittered when the sun hit them and didn't smell when they got wet.

The sudden fall of snow made farmers rush to pick their crops and attempt to salvage what they could, those that would starve found that the lizard meat was actually pretty tasty and the scales were both strong enough to be used as tools and if someone was smart enough decoration for clothing.

So she now sat there reading the letter that had just arrived, all of the small houses were gathering and were having meetings here and there and now she was being invited to meet somewhere they all could reach, after that, they would all send a representative for every group.

They needed to get this secured before the minor houses became involved in before the main houses got their greedy hands on any of this. Material arriving that was not secured, now, however, they needed to get their people to use and benefit from the new material.

If they could get word to spread, then they could control who managed what and who made what, they were acting far to quickly but if they hesitated a tailor or an animal tamer could and would take advantage of the situation.


	2. Chapter 2

[Change William]

They had no choice, William ordered several of the men to follow him he took most of the men with him, they all carried their weapons each one ready to fight in case they needed to.

He didn't like it, not because he was revealing their treasure to the men but rather the fact they were walking into an unknown situation, regardless they hadn't encountered any problems, the soon found the dragon graveyard and he immediately ordered the men to begin to carry the scales that were already loose.

H=e ordered his men to walk slowly when they already had enough scales, he was forced to realine the lines on the road by himself. there were signs of someone having moved them recently.

The walk back to the village was slow and his men became frustrated by the low progress they made, he didn't care they would soon have to do all of this on their own.

Finally, they reached the village walls, now ty would have to work, Jose didn't see much point in his actions, that much he understood but the boy is still young and he hasn't seen enough hardship to understand that nothing must be left to chance.

He ordered the men to go to the bridge and begin to reinforce it using the scales, there wouldn't be any need to rebuild the bridge if it was made of scales, even if the wood rotted away, as long as the scales remained intact, there would always be a bridge.

The boys had begun to work digging holes on the side of the river, deep enough for rocks logs and sand could be thrown in, and a wall of stone could be put on top of it, they would need to place scales on the outside of the wall to make it had to climb, but first thing was firs, they had to gather all of the rocks needed.

He noticed an empty boat drift in, carried by the river, they would come once in a while and William knew that it meant that another group of explorers or colonists had died.

He stopped what he was doing when he noticed several children riding in it, he was about to say something when he noticed dozens of boats following it, men women and children all road within them.

Slowly the boats stopped and the people got off, he hadn't even said anything, and they were already falling on the ground.

"Give them food" Jose ordered the people, he wanted to order the boy to just let them die, it was already winter and if things kept going the way they were, the food supply around them would run out, the animals had already migrated.

The women carried bows filled with stew and the people ate it like starving dogs.

"You have to options, obey us and live here or leave and risk living somewhere else!" he said to them in the most commanding way possible.

None of them argued and like before they separated the orphans or the kids that didn't have anyone taking care of them from those that did have a parent or people guardian them, the women that had families were separated from those that didn't, and the single men have all moved aside from everyone else.

There wasn't any room in the village they had at the moment, however, there was plenty of room on the other side of the river, he hadn't said anything to the boy, but the way he had designed the dome houses had in fact made them rather simple to remodel, so if the people wanted a better house, they could build one themselves, they would just have to destroy the one they already had.

They were forced to use the materials they had to build these people's houses, so that they didn't freeze to death, now they owed Jose and by extension the village their loyalty.

The sun vanished behind the clouds, it was time to get inside, he followed Jose back home and the guards began to walk around keeping watch for any signs of trouble.

He hadn't told the boy, but he had ordered a few of the men to sleep during the day, for they would be awake when everyone would be asleep, they didn't like it and he didn't care, so they did it anyway.

He walked in and found all of the women waiting for him, he was about to get rid of the day's stress, when he heard the door open and someone walk out.

William couldn't help but smile, those two would end up together, there was no way they wouldn't, but that was something to think about later, right now he had things to do.

[Character change Jose]

He sat next to Jake and placed a blanket made of feathers and fur, this time however he didn't bother throwing the thing on her no he covered her with it and he was inside it with her.

Jake placed her head on his shoulder and smiled, neither of them said anything even as it snowed all around them, the clouds soon vanished and they were left watching a bright full moon.

Unbeknownst to them however several of the women and, men and the guards had seen them and watched them from afar as the snow fell all around them.

Joe opened his eyes and found the four kids sleeping inside the blanket, he could hear the people working and as he stood up he noticed that the men and the kids had already finished digging the holes and fill them up.

He was going to walk down to help, but a pair of tiny hands were firmly grasping his, he looked down and noticed two of the boys looking at him with wide eyes as if pleading him not to leave them.

Jose smiled at them, he wondered how he looked with the two boys and two girls underneath the blanket with them.

The days went by quickly and Jose soon found himself looking at a newly built wall on the other side of the river separating the village from the forest on the other side of the river, the wall separating the village from the river would soon be finished.

He felt a smack on the back of his head and found Jake walking past him, she had let her hair grow, it was slightly longer than before, the kids ran past him alongside their dogs, he smiled as the ships finally returned, and stopped between the two villages.

[Character change Tywin Lannister]

Tywin Lannister listened to the reports of his spies, the man had even brought to him a few feathers, meat and whatever scales he could get his hands on.

"Are you certain of this?" he asked the man.

"Yes my lord" the man answered him before handing Tywin a piece of skin on it was a drawing of Jose, Tywin didn't show it, but inwardly he smiled.

"The next time the good captain and his ship arrive, tell him that I want to speak to this boy and ...No, I will send someone to negotiate a trade between my kingdom and his own."

"...We have been attempting to secure a hold in the area, so perhaps a deal can be made between us." Tywin said to the man in front of him.

"My lord?" the man said confused by Tywin's words.

"There is no reason for me to explain any of this to you but I'll relieve you of your curiosity, this can help us in three different ways, one we can get rid of anyone that doesn't benefit us in any way, people that are too sick or are simply useless."

"Two even if we can't claim a hold in the area, we still have the first strong trade with the only village that speaks our language and finally should things go wrong there is a place for us to escape and lick our wounds," Tywin said as he looked at the man, before becoming quiet, his silence told the man that he was supposed to leave the room now.


	3. Chapter 3

Snow began to fall, Tywin watched it fall he felt nothing from the snow now, the window was located in a part of the castle that showed him the garden his wife looked after, it was the only thing she did outside of what a lady was expected to do.

She loved that garden and when he had asked her why she had bothered planting the thing there, she simply said, because you need to know there is color in the world, he could still remember the smile she had when she said those words to him.

"Father" he heard the imps voice.

He didn't bother looking at him. "There is a ship being loaded with goods, things not common amongst the south, you will travel on that ship to Sothoryos."

"There is a small village or perhaps its a kingdom I'm not certain, depending on how this trip goes we will either remain with our plan to take the north or if things go well we will expand to the south."

"Father?" the imp asked him.

"When you were younger you wanted to travel and see what the world had to offer, I'm giving you the opportunity now, granted it will be far more limited than what your brother or any other man has had, but sacrifices have to be made." he answered the imp.

'You will remain there as long as you want, live there the rest of your life if you so desire, just keep our houses foothold on whatever land, ports and trading routes you can get."

"Will I go alone?" the imp asked him.

"...No, pick some men and take them with you, I suggest you take their families as well, amongst the goods, you will take people with you, you will need workers that are loyal to our house and can't be easily swayed to someone else." He could feel the imp wanting to say something, however, he was already being generous with his time.

"Comeback if that is what you want, even if you fail, should you succeed, bring the king of those lands here or arrange for me to go there." he told the imp before going quiet and ignoring the imps presence, soon he heard the sound of the door closing.

Tywin watched the snowfall outside of his window, there was no color in the world now...no, there in the distance was a single flower, it was bright amongst all of the snow, it alone remained, just like her it was the only color in the world.

{The captain ]

"The place has changed" the captain thought to himself as he looked around, the sighs of a defensive wall could already be seen, it wasn't much, his men could easily jump off the ship and land inside the walls, even if they risked the landing.

Yet he still had to give credit to the boy, the village had grown faster than he had imagined, there were people on both sides of the river now, that alone was an accomplishment.

He could hear his men unloading the crates and cages it would soon be time to go hunting again, he remained on the ship, normally he would have been the first one to set foot on land, simply because the people were no threat here.

Now, however, he wasn't so certain anymore.

From his position, he could see some boys and adult men training in how to use a sword, even though they were only using thick wooden sticks, he could see a sturdy wall on the side of the forest, he had been alive long enough to know that there was blood on the walls.

He allowed himself to wonder if it was Human or animal for a moment before the glitter of something caught his attention, he found the boy walking down to greet him and his men, hanging from his hip was a hammer that glittered almost as if it was made of the purest of metals.

Besides the boy was the knight the man still wore his armor, how the man kept the thing clean was a mystery, how he kept it from getting too hot or too cold was an even bigger mystery.

"This is your share" he heard one of his men say to the boy as crates filled with copper and some silver was delivered to the boy as payment.

"What am I supposed to do with this, I mean where am I going to spend it." the boy said and he had to fight the urge to laugh.

The knight hit the boy on the back of the head before taking a hand full of silver coins and signaling some of the men to carry the crates to the house at the edge of the forest.

They wouldn't stay long not this time, things were happening and like it or not he was still an Ironborn, this meant that if he was going to die or if he wanted to be safe he had to be at sea and that extended to both the women and the children.

He didn't have to say this to his men, they could feel it too, things were changing, no it was more like things were happening and if they couldn't keep up with the change, they would be crushed underneath it.

Already the empty cages were being replaced by cages that already had creatures inside them.

Mainlanders would call him paranoid, but none of them had to keep a ship afloat and their men from killing each other, that's the reason he stayed on board, even now he could smell the scent of blood in the air, something was going to happen and it would happen soon.

"Captain" one of his men said to him before handing him a piece of skin that had a list of things asked by the boy.

Medicin, clothing, weapons, spices and tools, simple things that anyone could get, he was about to simply dismiss the list when he noticed smoke in the distance, it wasn't anywhere near the village, at least not yet.

"How much longer until everything is loaded?" he asked his men.

"We are almost done captain" the man that had given him the list answered him, his expression hardend, they both knew that a fight would soon begin.

[Character change Jose]

He watched the men leave on the ship when everything was loaded, they seemed in a hurry for some reason, it was almost like if something had them spooked.

I couldn't help but smile, yeah something had them spooked, if something didn't scare you in this place, there has to be something wrong with you.

Thankfully the men left behind, a lot of salt, sugar, and oil, things may not seem too important but to be able to taste something sweet while working or after a long day's work...yeah that's the stuff that makes life bearable.

"Bring a small pouch, and that means all of you" I said to everyone, William gave me a disapproving look but I just ignored him, one by one I gave everyone a small hand full of sugar.

They would later use it in whatever way they wanted, hell the people that recently arrived here were already eating the stuff, the sugar was hard and it had to be crushed for it to become powder, but the small rock-like form it had right now was perfect for it to be considered candy.

It took me over an hour to finish handing out everyone their handfull and soon only William, Jake, and the kids were left, William had already given his wives their share, it was the only time the man even put his hand in the sugar.

The kids immediately began to eat heir share of sugar, however, when I was bout to hand Jake her handfull, I noticed that there was something on her hair.

Jake blushed a little and smiled at me...her eyes really are.

"Do you like it, the smith made hair clips for me. He said that I could grow my hair long and keep it looking short." She turned bright red.

"Do you like them" She had a bright smile and her lips looked really red.

"...Yeah." I answered her.

"...Do you like girls with long hair Jose?" she asked me before William coughed loudly.

I turned to look at William and noticed the kids were laughing ats they looked at us, and I noticed that a lot of the men had wide grins on their faces.

"Get back to work." I said to everyone, and the people just went back to doing what they were doing.

"By the way, William, remember when Jake and I were attacked. Well since we received those crates filled with coins, look William there's a lot of gold in a cave near the scales, jake and I hid inside it' I said to William.

"Leave it there for now, your right, we don't have anything to spend it on and no one here has anything they canbuy, show me where latter." he said to me as he placed the lid on the crate of sugar.


	4. Chapter 4

William immediately sat down on the crate and looked at me in the eyes.=, Jake and the kids were going to leave however William stopped them just by raising his hand.

"The lot of you need to hear this, Jose its time you start acting like a proper lord, you may not know this, but this village, no this town will grow and the people will start...The people see you as the illake\ town lord."

"That means you have to start acting like it, you can feel it in the air, something is not right, something is coming and when it gets here things are going to be bad."

"I've been alive long enough, and I've seen enough battles to know when a war is coming...your people will turn to you to protect them. If you fail you lose everything, if you succeed you risk everything, somehow, someway, the word always spreads, and heads will turn your way." he said to me, his eyes looked tired as if he didn't want to experience these sort of things again.

The screams of women made us all turn around and I was shocked to see not one but four large ships, they were either the same size or slightly smaller than the captains.

We waited for someone to step off or show themselves, but no one ever did, regardless the shi[ps had hit the edge of the rives and crashed into each other, they were stuck there.

Already men were standing on top of the walls and throwing ropes onto the ships, the bravest of them were the first onboard, I could see the man waiting for others to go up with him and when enough men accompanied him they went into the ship.

A few minutes later, the men returned, every one of them held the heads of people in their hands.

Whoever had attacked them didn't discriminate.

I watched as the men moved from ship to ship, men women and children all of which were hiding inside the ships, they were half-crazed from whatever had happened to them, one good thing, however, was the fact that a few knights that had traveled with the people survived and were now sitting on the edge of the walls.

I looked at William and I could see his heart hardening.

"William I dint know if I can" I said to him, as I looked at the knight.

"You don't have a choice, look around you." he said to me in a low voice and I felt my chest tighten, all around me the people both the recently arrived and the people that had ignored me for a long time were looking at me.

Even Jake and the kids that had surrounded me looked at me with frightened expressions, the only exception to this, were the people that were sitting on the outside of the village walls.

"Your men need armor." William said before nodding in the direction of the knights that were sitting on the outside of the walls.

"You need to get them to bend the knee, we can make the armor out of the scales, we already know that we can use them for shields, but that's for later, its time to go greet your people." William said to me before he began to walk towards the recently arrived people.

He never bothered to look back.

"Jake stay with them, I have to go see what happened and ..." Jake placed a finger on my lips, her eyes were warm and she immediately graved the hand of two of the children and they graved one of their siblings before they all walked back to the house.

I listened to the people's story, they were colonists, looking for a better future, they knew things would be hard, but they expected to at least live.

According to them, they met some natives at first the natives were king, they traded with each other, then people started going missing and soon an invasion started.

The supposed friendly natives were sacrificing the colonist to a giant black tree, it didn't matter if the people were already dead or if the had to kill them, regardless the natives would decorate the tree with the people's corpses.

The people that had arrived were the ones that managed to get out, however, none of them knew how to use a ship, so they just drifted and the current brought them here.

"Swear you won't betray me and you can live here. You will have to live by the rules of this place but if you can..." I didn't even get to finish, all of the people kneeled immediately, this included the knights.

Like before we offered the people food and water, but they would have to stay on their ships, we had already used up most of our scales and the walls took priority at the moment, the people themselves agreed.

[Character change William]

This confirmed it, it was coming and when it happened they wouldn't be ready. The natives that sacrificed the dead to accursed trees, people from distant lands arriving and being killed, a boy that is becoming a lord and creating his own kingdom.

Even now creatures that should not exist walk the woods.

"All of you come with me" he said to the knights and he called to all of the boys and men training.

"Train them, we will need people that can fight for when they come" he said to the knights and he immediately turned around and left the boys and men alone with the knights.

William didn't like what he was bout to do but he knew it had to be done, he drew his sword and brought it down on Jose's head, the boy's instincts proved their worth as he used his hammer to block his attack.

"You need to train William said to his lord Joses confused expression, turned into one of joy, however, William could see it was just a front for the people around him.


	5. Chapter 5

William moved his sword and it connected with Jose's hammer, sometimes the boy would doge, sometimes the boy would block his sword with his hammer.

Finally, when the sun went down, they both went home, they walked past the guards that had begun to make their rounds, however before they reached the house Jose stopped and looked at William.

"William, what are we going to do with the ships. I mean the captain is going to come back one day and it's not the first time boats just show up here."

"We will worry about that when it happens, think on the bright side, we have ships now." he answered the boy, William could see some of the knights walking from ship to ship as they kept guard.

The days seemed to pass by quickly, in the early morning the men would hunt for animals, help bring back the scales, or train, the snow continued to fall until it finally covered the ground completely, this time there was no more ground to look at.

The hunters had begun to take some of the boys with them and teach them to move from tree to tree, they began to hunt using arrows, ropes, and spider webs.

He had suggested using poisons that made the animals loosed consciousness, but the hunters rejected the idea because there was no telling when the animals would wake up and if it killed them the poison would ruin the meat.

He watched as the houses were made and the recently arrived people from the ships slowly began to join the village no town, hey had eve begun to make a kind of business for themselves, they had boats and could move faster than normal, so they began to fish in deeper waters, in fact they had used one of the ships to go further ahead and used the boats to bring back the fish they caught.

So now he stood surrounded by everyone, he had told the boy that they needed to do something to help lighten the people's mood and the boy suggested a meal, one that everyone could join in.

Even the guards would participate, they would still keep guard, but they would be given their share of the meal and be replaced by someone else so they could join in aswell.

The full moon was bright and almost seemed like a white sun, roasted lizard, giant bird eggs and fish soup was the people's meal, and as an added treat they had hot water mixed with sugar.

He watched as people began to play music and some of the married men danced with their wives, the music nearly stopped when Jose began to dance with Jake.

"When did the boy get so big?" William thought to himself, Jose was already taller than Jake, perhaps he was now thirteen or perhaps older considering he grew up alone with no one knowing how old he truly was.

He watched as Jake danced her clothes were the same s usual, but the boy stopped snapped his fingers and picked up a red piece of cloth that was used to cover the tables.

No one used the table so the cloth was still clean.

He immediately placed it on Jake and used a rope to tie it to the girls' waist. The boy immediately reached for the girl's hair and removed her hair clips, letting her long silver hair fall.

Her thin body made a lot of people believe she was indeed a man, but nor, with the skirt she had on and with her long hair down, William was able to fully appreciate the beauty she truly was.

The two continued to dance and William realized Jake was trying to hide her self under Jose's chest as the men and women began to murmur amongst themselves.

William felt his head begin to hurt and his instincts flared there wasn't any danger but he had to look up and that's when he saw it, looking at him, the same creature from that day, it showed its fanged mouth, like if it was smiling at him.

The creature and himself locked eyes and it felt like if the two of them somehow knew each other, the creature didn't do anything, it just looked at him and then it flew away.

A how from deep within the forest, caught everyone's attention, it repeated itself throughout the entire night.

[Character change Tyrion]

He watched as they neared the Sothoryos and followed the only path known, it had taken a lot to get the good captain to say where the path to the village was.

The sun was high and he already hated the cold, whatever happened to the stories that said that the south didn't have winters and that the waters were always warm.

He knew what had happened to those stories, they were all lies. His father had entrusted to him five ships, one was filled with bribes, tools, paper, medicine and anything useful really.

Two of the ships had an exaggerated amount of knights, the rest were filled with supplies and things needed to make a settlement, of course, that included people, regardless they had finally entered the river that led to where they had to go.

From what the captain had said, they would recognize the village when they saw it, what the good captain had said was true, its faster to get to the village than it is to leave, from what the captain of his own ship had said, there seems to be a current that drags ships to the river.

His men were ready to force the village and its people into submission, however, both he and his father had other plans, the people in that village had survived, something that was unheard of.

No, they needed those people to live and if they lived they were useful, why else would they be carrying about bribes after all.

Tyrion had to admit he was surprised to see two ships already docked and the strange walls surrounding both villages, no, they weren't two villages, they were the same village, the bridge made of the same strange scale-like stone connected both sides of the river.

If he had to, he would leave his ships behind and settle somewhere else, he had already expected to do so, of course, he would leave guards to protect the ships but both he and his men knew they were in this for the long run.

His father didn't take well to failure.

The sound of something moving on both sides of the river made the hairs on the back of his headstand and he was shocked to find, two massive beasts that looked like wolves following the ships.

With the beasts, were several smaller wolves, the two giant beasts locked eyes with him, from both sides of the river he was being watched.

He felt the ship be pulled back as it was being forced to stop, it was time to meet the locals and begin his long act.


	6. Chapter 6

Tyrion could feel the world around him move, for some reason he could swear that for some reason as long as he lived her, he would always be forced to be on guard.

The ship slow down and completely stop, suddenly the ship began to shake and move on its own, it was like if the river had come to life, Tyrion looked down and from the edge of the ship, he found himself unable to believe what he was seeing.

Fish were moving, either crashing into the ship or squeezing themselves past it, Tyrion watched as the fish tore and bit into one another painting the river red.

Suddenly the ship lifted itself into the air and Tyrion as well as his men gasped, a massive serpent swallowed dozens of fish, the creature looked at him before returning to eat the fish, quickly the ship fell back into the water.

Tyrion laughed and his men watched in amazement, dragons real dragons flew don into the river, small dragon-like beasts flew by the dozens pulling the fish out of the river before eating them.

Yet what made him laugh was the sight of all of the massive beast in front of him, blue, white, red, green and black dragons landed at the edge of the river and tore into the river.

He could hear the men scream and, a few were already writing or drawing the sight in front of them.

"Go go go go go go!" Tyrion heard men scream and he watched men from the village run around as they pulled nets filled with fish, some of the men shot arrows into the river and pulled some of the larger beasts out of the river.

This shocked Tyrion, not because they were pulling the large fish out of the river, no it was because they were using the larger beast as bait to make the fish eat the larger beast and give the men a chance to pull the fish in the nets out of the river.

Just as quickly as the events happened they ended and the silence was all that remained.

"Incredible" Tyrion said as he watched the dragons take off into the sky.

The doors of the village opened and two men walked out, a gray-haired knight and a young man with short black hair, Tyrion noticed the boy wore clothing made of skins and fur, however, the old knight wore a set of simple armor, the kind normally seen worn by sellswords.

The two massive wolves watched him ever so carefully as if they were expecting to do something stupid like attacking the two men.

"Here they come, give them a proper greeting!" the captain of his shi screamed to his men, his words were carried from ship to ship, quickly the sailors all stood on both sides of their ships and took off their hats.

Tyrion even noticed that some of the men that hadn't worn any hats at all were now holding the things close to their chests.

"Time to shine," Tyrion said to himself as he began to walk off the ship, slowly he took every step, his movements were made to symbolize some sort of authority, despite his short size he was still a Lannister and he would be dammed if someone took him lightly because of his hight.

When he reached the bottom he found both the captain of the ship and the captain of the knights already waiting for him.

The two men finally stood before the three of them, dozens of small dragons landed and flew around the black-haired man and it was then that Tyrion saw it, the man that wor the skins and furs, his short black hair and light brown skin.

This was the exact copy of Ned Starks bastard, Tyrion had met John Snow when he had to acknowledge by the king, it was a minor occasion and something barely of any importance. Ned Stark the Lord of the North, was simply the king's good friend and so the king would acknowledge his good friends one and only bastard.

The man's wife was clearly against it, but she didn't matter, this was the king's decision not her husband or hers, there were whispers of another boy, that there were two boys born one was taken by Nerd Stark and one by his bed warmer.

It was whispered by the servants that the man had known what his wife would have done to the two boys, so he kept one and the woman kept the other.

Tyrion had to admit that he was surprised to find that the stories of the second child were true.

"Welcome strangers, from the lion on your chest I take it your from Westeros." the young man said to him, his smile was welcoming and Tyrion for a brief moment thought of the boy as incredibly naive for acting so friendly.

Yet as he was about to say something, he noticed the small dragons around the boy all glaring their fangs at him and the men on the ships.

"The face of a welcoming friend, but with the fangs of a vicious beast."Tyrion thought to himself.

"Greetings sir, or perhaps Lord of. You have to forgive me I do not know your kingdoms name, but I am Tyrion Lannister of House Lannister, I'll refrain from boring you with who my father and what other rubbish comes with my name as none that is important here." he said as he moved his hand, signaling to the forest around them

"I as well as the men and the women here have come to settle these lands." he let his words sin in and after a brief pause to catch his breath he continued.

"You may not know this my goo Lord, but earlier attempts to settle have proven disastrous and you can imagine our surprise when word of an unknown settlement reached our ears."

"And you wanted to force us under your rule" the old knight interrupted him, no the knight wasn't old, he just looked that way, the strain of life and constant battles had gotten to the man and contributed to his older appearance.

Tyrion had seen men like him before and he wouldn't be surprised if the man was only in his early thirties.

Tyrion let a smirk form on his lips, "No my good sir, we came here to settle and form an allegiance, and we have come to take advantage of the fact that you survived."

"I propose a trade, I offer the strength of my knights, my sailors and of course some of the goods we have brought with us, for your guidance on where to settle, how to hunt and mutual protection." Tyrion said to the two men, as the knights on each ship began to walk off them.

The younger ma simply smiled.

"My friend you're going to need more than just knights" he said as the miniature dragons let out tiny shrieks before flying around them.

Tyrion had to give both the knights and the crew on the ship's credit for not screaming, as for the servants and the settlers they would be forgiven for cowering in fear.

The two massive wolves stood on both sides of the river completely exposing themselves, they no longer bothered with hiding, alongside them was the entire pack.

"Don't touch anything we tell you not to and listen when we tell you things. If you can do that then you have a deal." the knight said to him, before the captain interrupted their conversation.

"That's it no threats, no don't betray me, none of it." the man asked confused.

"Walk into that forest, now that it's safe to walk around because all of the animals have gone somewhere else because of the cold and if you come back alive, you'll understand why." the knight answered the captain.

"I take it that there are things in the forest more dangerous than tiny dragons and giant wolves" Tyrion said as he looked at the massive beasts looking at him.

Both men looked at each other and laughed.

"Come you your men and your people must be tired, brig some of your food and the woe will cook it for you, just make sure you and your men don't touch any daughters or wives, there are plenty of pleasure girls for that." the older of the two men said to him as the doors of the village were opened.

They followed the two men into the village and Tyrion was about to warn the men no to do anything stupid, but then he thought he wouldn't have to.

Insectes the size of small cats walked around freely, dogs the size of horses were laid sleeping, the houses varied in shape and size but they were all made of the same strange scale-like stone.

Children took the eggs from the nests of strange birds that could easily crush their skulls under their beaks, even the fish that had been just caught earlier were being put inside barrels filled with water.

Tyrion nearly let out a breath as a woman with long silver hair light blue perhaps purple eyes and fair skin, walked up to them, she wore the clothing of man, yet there was no doubt she was a woman.

"Targaryan," he said to himself in a whisper, several children followed her two boys and two girls, each with the same hair, skin and eye colors as her, yet they all stopped in front of the young lord of these lands.

"Father" the boys said as the looked at the knights who stood proudly before them, behind the boys both knights and men dressed in skins gathered and stood with a presence that nearly equaled his men, despite being fewer in number.

Two small dragons landed next to the girls while one took its place on top of the woman's head, however, Tyrion nearly lost himself when the giant white would simply walk over the walls of the town and carefully stood behind the young lord.

The black wolf stood behind the elder man, more than a greeting this was both a play of power and a warning.

"We can defend ourselves if needed." was what Tyrion believed was bein said to him and the people with him, several dogs ran up the boys and girls, the children immediately followed the animals and did what children do best, they began to play.

Tyrion watched as the rest of the day passed, his men unloaded supplies, while his people began to walk further down into the river a spot not too far from the village was marked and it would be from there that he and his people would begin to settle.

Normally being so close to another settlement was foolish, because it would cause territorial disputes, but from what he had seen already, the two settlements needed to be this close, otherwise help would never arrive in time.

Finally, the food was done the cooking and the people ate greedily as a hot meal touched their mouth and their stomachs.

"It's hard to believe that all of this happened in a single day, but at least I can get good night's sleep." Tyrion thought to himself as the ground began to shake, even as the sun began to go down, he watched as a beast so massive and witches eyes glowed as if it held the sun in one eye and the moon in the other, walked past the town.

"This is a land where Gods still walk amongst men" one of them said as he looked at the same beast.

All around them the forest came to life, strange lights could be seen in the distance and eyes that glowed in the dark watched them from afar.

The people in the town started firs and Tyrion somehow knew that the fires were meant to keep whatever was in the forest away from the town.


	7. Chapter 7

[Point of view change]

The strange men moved about the forest, there were many more of them now, their strange armors that had the figures of tiny long-dead dead beasts seemed to glitter when the sun touched them.

It wasn't the first time their people had encountered Humans before, no the race known as Man was or better yet said is an illness and a cure, its an illness because it brings about chaos where ever it goes, they tend to ask questions better not asked and bring about events that shouldn't have happened.

Yet in that chaos there is order, they can create wonders out the earth itself and just like the Woodlings themselves they could love and live with the forest.

The had watched the tribe split itself into two, one that lived on one side of the river and one that lived on the other, indeed his people thought of this as foolish as a tribe only gets stronger as it grows and yet they had done just that.

They had watched the cursed one take from the dead and build walls around the village, such a thing was foolish for the forest did not forgive such an atrocity and yet both the tribes lived.

Even the creatures of the forest seemed joyful at having such an abomination amongst them, they had followed him and his woman when the collected pieces of the dead and when the guardian laughed.

The creature could have killed them in an instant and yet, it let them live.

Even now the forest was for the lack of better words happy to have him with it.

His people had felt the trees scream when one of the ancients was cut down and set ablaze by the creature in the form of a man and yet he lived.

The events that they had seen should not have happened, the fish from the sea were known to tear apart anything in their path and the greate serpents cared not for ships or villages simply left both alone...

The great wolves of night and day acted as if they had found their partners and even the smaller fangs had attached themselves to the woman and children with the hair of the moon.

At first, he and those accompanying him thought that the small fangs had attached themselves to the creature in the form of a man, but no as they kept watch, they noticed that they were doing the silver-haired woman bidding.

The woman with light skin, silver hair, was like a maiden in love and the small fangs acted accordingly, showing that creature so much affection because that's what the maiden of the moon felt for him.

Still, they watched as the tribes of man grew, how they dug into the earth and built walls between the river and the land, how they separated themselves from the forest rather than welcoming it.

He couldn't help but wonder if these men were so arrogant as to believe that they could dominate the forest, for such a thing while possible could only end in disaster.

He moved from one tree to another, it was always a wonder for him when he left his body and joined with one of the many others around him.

He could feel the animals fear, it's feeling when it flew or ran about the forest.

Indeed he and his men had seen the creature take his friend when the moon was full, place a garment on him and use what power it had to turn him into the maiden of the moon.

What once was a man, was now a woman, she now watched the children, he had to admit that they were afraid of what else such a being could do if angered.

He closed his eyes and felt his soul return to his body, he opened his eyes and found himself back in his village, they had missed their chance, the tribs of man had grown and should they attack now while they would win, they would have heavy loses.

He could feel his men opening their eyes as they watched the great beast move about, there was no need for walls, the forest was their protective walls.

It fed, sloth them and protected them, it took from them only what it needed and when it was it angered it did what it had to do, yet its anger always passed.

Yet the creatures known as man chose to build walls around their village.

Already they were cutting down trees that were still alive and building homes out of the dead, how could such finds be allowed to live in their home.

He walked towards the ancients, the black and white trees at the center of the village and he gazed upon two slaves, one for the white tree and one for the black tree, their life's blood would pass down their memories and joined what lie they had to the ancients themselves.

Slaves were needed for they took the needed metals from beneath the ground, nothing of them was lost, even when they fell dead, their corpses would fee the ancients.

The creatures that didn't respect life were destined to e slaves, that was simply their fate, their punishment for not caring about life or death, soon his people would take the tribes of the abomination.

That one thought worried him.

Why did he feel such fear, until now despite being outnumbered never before had his people ever last any wars, or been truly... no such a thought couldn't be real.

The warrior women, the men of gems, and the half beasts nome of them had ever found their home, yet none of them ever dared to cut down an ancient and much less burn its roots, preventing it from ever returning and yet that creature in the form of a man did.

"Perhaps it's not us that should humble such a being" one of his brothers said, as he felt his worries.

He turned to look at the slaves and found them all looking at him, some had given up entirely, some had eyes filled with hate and some had accepted their fate but nonetheless would fight to the end.

[Character change]


	8. Chapter 8

Tyrion watched as the carpenters began to set up shop, the little people had already begun to cut down trees, as per agreement with lord Jose they would keep their workshops between both of the towns.

Granted he didn't have a town just yet, but details, details.

The men themselves were frankly speaking eager to get to work, not just them, the smiths, the fishermen and even the knights themselves were eager to begin patrolling the lands and ready to carve their own pice of the land.

Jose and William both said that they should wait until either the hunters or one of them had enough time to teach the knights how to move about the forest for if the men weren't careful they would miss something that was hunting them.

"Lord Tyrion, I have something to show you. Please bring some of your men" Jose said to him, the young man was unguarded, as usual, however, Tyrion noticed he now wore a strange scale like an object on his back and something similar to it on his shoulders.

As Tyrion looked at the man he noticed that all of it was held together by silk, yet what struck him the most was the silver hammer on the young man's waist.

He looked at the man in front of him and how he smiled like a child, like usual the small dragon flew around him as if making sure he was safe.

He followed the man to a path formed by the crushed snow and patted down dirt, the existence of this path meant people regularly walked here, they walked incidence and then the world became quiet.

Tyrion found himself alone in the forest, snow falling around him, somehow he had gotten himself separated without noticing it, regardless he was on a path and he could simply walk back to the town or he could carry on forward and catch up with everyone.

He walked alone and found himself staring at an old lion, the creature seemed to be made of gold and its mane looked like if it was made of pure, in fact, Tyrion didn't know what to call it but it was some sort of metal.

The creature was old and it had been in its share of battles considering how many scars it had, the sound of snow being crushed behind him, made Tyrion feel his chest swell with fear, if there was one lion, then that meant there were more.

Slowly he turned around and found himself face to face with a smaller lion, it was covered in scars, yet it refused to give in and so it maintained its powerful gaze.

With it were four other lions, each as beautiful as the older one Tyrion had first locked eyes with, four male lions and two females.

"Brother" Tyrion said as he looked at the older lion and the sound of snow crushed behind him almost made Tyrion turnaround, except he felt the elder lion let its hot breath onto him.

"Father is that you" Tyrion said as the elder lion walked past him, the other beasts followed him, only the smallest of the lions remained, its eyes locked on him.

The lion turned and walked away.

"Its incredible isn't it" Tyrion heard the voice of Jose say to him.

"Look around you your men decided to go into the animal's territory, it's a good thing most of them migrated or else they would all be dead." Jose said as he looked at the lion's leave.

"It seems that in the end you truly are a lion" the young man said to him.

"What was that?" Tyrion asked the young man.

"Both you and your men had to see it for yourselves, this forest, it's alive and I don't mean that it has trees and animals. No, what I mean is that its alive as in it will defend itself and it has acknowledged your presence."

"Lord Tyrion the Gold Lion of Scars, how does that sound" Jose said to him with an amused smile.

Tyrion listened as the wind moved about the trees and birds or what he believed were birds flew.

"What is this place?" he asked the young lord.

"That not even I know." the young man paused before looking around. "What do you guys say, do you want to head back or do you want to go a little bit deeper into the forest?" he asked the knights.

The men looked at each other and Tyrion could see that they were already prepared to defend themselves, it was clear that they had seen something aswell.

"We should head back and help with the creation of the town." Tyrion answered the young lord.

The young man smiled and walked back towards the town and for a moment he wondered if he had made the wrong choice, however, there was no point in regretting his decision it had already been made.

Tyrion followed the young lord and once again he was surprised by what he saw, he could see the town taking shape, men fired arrows from one tree to another and began to pull ropes high into the air.

Children carried drinks and food to the men as women sowed clothing, cooked, gutted animals and collected water.

Men cut down trees, made fires, smiths had begun to set up their workshops and already the sounds of hammers could be heard.

Tyrion watched as a ship was moved further down into the river, it wasn't one of his own, no it was one of the ones that had already been in the town before he arrived.

"I take it a castle wouldn't last long, not in this place" he said to Jose and the young man to his credit didn't hesitate to answer.

"No it wouldn't, but you can have a mansion, of course, you would have to share it with everyone in the village...Listen Lord Tyrion" the young man was about to say something but Tyrion already knew what he wanted to say.

"I take the end of the river you take the entrance." Tyrion interrupted the boys' word and to his surprise, the young man wasn't insulted, instead, he let out a breath of relief.

"I'm glad you agree, with that being said how good are your carpenters in building furniture?" Jose asked him.

Tyrion smiled, "You'll be pleased with their craftsmen ship, but there is, of course, the need for payment." he answered the young lord.

"I see, I guess I should as him to council" the young man stopped taking and Tyrion heard him swallow hard.

"Excuse me" he said before returning to his town.

Tyrion followed the young man and soon found out why he had acted so strangely.

"Stop, stop, stop," he said as he tried to stop the people from using the only bridge.

"I didn't build this thing top last if too many people use it at once it could break." he said to the men as they carried crates from one side of the river to the other side.

"Which is why I had it reinforced, come now Jose leave the men to their work, there's still the matter of how we are going to move everything" William said to Jose, Tyrion for a moment wondered who truly ruled the town, but he knew that a trusted knight could get away with more than a normal man ever could.

The two men headed to a large building and sat down to talk, Tyrion was about to go look at his own men's progress when he noticed a scribe walking towards him, the man had several papers in his hands.

"Tell me what have you heard." he said to the man.

The man handed him the papers and he began to talk.

"Yes, this is what the people tell. One day there was a storm and a hole opened in the sky, two days later a small boy walked out of the forest."

"He wore clothes that were far too large for him and would better fit a full-grown man, but life was harsh and no one knew if they could, would live to see the next day, so they chased the boy away."

"They watched as he walked back into the foresty and was chased after by creatures that should have killed him and yet he lived."

"From time to time a merchant ship would arrive and the people aren't sure if someone taught him how to build things or if he already knew how, but he began to trade with a merchant"

"Eith just a hammer the boy began to build wonders, in fact, the bridge, the walls, even the houses are the boy's creation, during that time a woman with children arrived with new settlers, but unfortunately all of the settlers died."

"All except for the children, two boys, and two girls, all with silver hair"

"Somehow the boy began to take over the village and no concerned to stop him, for the first time in years, there was plenty to eat, the house were warm and creatures didn't attack them while they slept."

"And from one broken man that swore loyalty to him, he now has skilled hunters and knights under his command" the scribe told him the story the people had said to him, it was an abbreviated version, but it detailed how Jose had come to power.

"Open it and hand it to me" he ordered the man, the scribe immediately handed him a letter sealed with his father's seal.

 **Make a map of the lands and the rivers, send me what you have and keep updating them. I don't care how incomplete they are send them to me.**

 **You have five ships, sue two toe figure out how long it takes to get from where you are to where I am, two of my ships are already waiting to head towards your location.**

 **They won't be heading to your location, they will be heading there to map out the region around you an use your location to rest and resupply.**

Tyrion looked at the sky and took a deep breath. "We haven't even set things up and he's already planning on going in deeper into the lands.

"So do we have any maps made already?" he asked the scribe, the man took out several, some had constellations, others had the currents of the water and the last ones had the drawings of where the river that had been seen already, these include the town itself.

"Do we have any crows?" he asked the scribe and the man nodded.

"When the men find the exit of the river, get as far enough as possible and send these to him. I'm not giving up any ship for the time being" he said as he looked at the slowly forming town.


	9. Chapter 9

[Point of view change]

Few can truly understand the events that are taking place and even fewer can plan ahead of them, two days ago several cows had arrived, they each carried with them the maps of Sothoryos.

From what the maps had sown the imp had managed to get a rather small set of land near the exit of the main river, the sam exit was a two-day walking distance from the settlement.

The usual also arrived, constellations, currents and so on that, in all honesty, the captains of his fleet would need to study upon.

But that was the thing, ships required men, men needed food, freshwater and something else to ensure their loyalty, not to mention the fact that with every ship that left, that meant one less ship to defend his region of the world.

Unfortunately, there was not true reliable way to communicate with the imp, the Ironborn exile was quite frankly too much of a liability to be trusted, for even the Ironborn didn't want him.

Yet the imps settlement was now Lannister land and to leave it undefended was an act of foolishness, two dozen men were no real defense against a dedicated force and as far as the lord of the other settlement was concerned the outside world could burn or freeze and it wouldn't affect him.

The Ironborn had come and gone so he had a general idea of how long it took to reach that part of the world, especially considering the ship carried with it live animals, animals that weren't used to the climate of Westeros.

He needed more ships, ships require wood, wood need trees, and trees need men to cut them down and do what has to be done, yet none of that would happen without a lords approval.

Thankfully he had gold and gold was understood by all.

Tywin listened to wind blow outside his window, sellswords could easely fill in the gaps, should the men die on the expedition then nothing was lost, should they survive, then both he and the imp would have an added boots to their defenses.

Ships could be acquired, with a crew and all, but the matter was just how much could he afford to spend on an entirely uncertain investment. Already the minor houses were moving to catch whatever it was, the few lords who were only lords by name, had and would soon move in to take complete control of it.

He was certain they would send ships and try to get control of some land...but that was the thing wasn't it, it was practically impossible to settle in Sothoryos.

He needed to plan when the chaos of this new age ended, it would be his house that would come out on top, but first thing was first.

" Send these to the captains of my merchant ships, as soon as they believe themselves capable to make the journey tell them to do so and not wait for my order."

'Their job is to simply reach the settlement and come back, I'll send another ship or group of ships will set sail as soon as they arrive back to our port." he said to a servant that was inside his room.

First thing was first, he needed to make sure that the one resting spot could be reached without any problems, and that journey could be made back and forth.

Not even n hour had passed and Tywin was able to see a single ship set sail, he allowed himself to smile.

[Charater change Tyrion]

It's incredible just how quickly they were able to build the town, yet again when everyone's strength was set on a single goal that goal becomes incredibly simple to complete.

His men had taken advantage of the pleasure girls and Tyrion had to admit that the exotic looking women were pleasing to look at, especially as he enjoyed them himself.

The houses his town hade were different from Lord Jose's while Jose had a town made with strange scale-like stone, his was made entirely of wood, dirt, and stone.

There was a few scale stone here and there but, Tyrion couldn't trust something he had never seen before, he had seen houses made of rocks, but just not these strange rocks.

Regardless he took the men's words seriously and so did the carpenters, make sure not to leave any openings for creatures to enter at night and for god's sake man, if you're going to male your house out of wood, make sure its wood that doesn't rot so quickly.

Regardless today was like the day before cold, with a lot of snow, the men were busy, the women were sexy and he was bored, he needed something else to happen, perhaps the gods had listened to him, or perhaps it was fate, but his eyes caught Jose walking out of the forest, carrying chest after chest filled with gold.

Tyrion watched as both the kights and the hunters went back and brought out crates, chest and strange stone filled with gold, there were so many coins that they practically spilled over Lord Jose's territory.

He as well as his men and the settlers all stopped what they were doing and watched as the men continued to bring out more and more of the precious metal, sometimes it was simple gold rock, other times it was actual coins.

Tyrion watched as a small figure ran down the town and headed to his location, he was honestly surprised to see that it was one of Lord Jose's doughters.

"Father wants to see you" she said to him, the girls' smile was an exact copy of her father's.

Tyrion was about to walk towards the other settlement when a small dragon landed directly in front of him, yet the creature nither looked at him or at the little girl.

Tyrion felt the hairs on his headstand and his men immediately placed themselves in front of him and the girl, their shields acting as a makeshift wall.

For the moment being there were only walls separating both sides of the river and Tyrion was starting to regret not building the ones needed to separate the town from the forest itself.

He couldn't see what was going on but in one single motion, his men drew their swords, the sound of the miniature dragons taking flight reached his ears and then it happened.

Tyrion heard men scream before the sounds of bodies hitting the men's shields reached his ears, he heard the girl scream and he graved her before she could be taken.

An arrow narrowly missed his head and Tyrion heard the screams of dying men as the dragons flew into the forest, no, not into the forest, rather the nearby trees.

Men fell to their deaths or fell dead their faces eaten by the creatures, from nowhere wolves ran into the forest as the massive black and white would charge madly into the forest.

The men screamed and charged into the forest, the battle lasted for the rest of the day, the fighting itself had ended long ago, but everyone's blood was boiling any wounded man was either killed or dragged into the center of town and hanged by their hands by ropes.

Tyrion took the girl back to her father's town, he was about to ask the man why he hadn't gone to retrieve his daughter, he stopped as when he walked into the man's town.

Tyrion watched as the bodies of men were being eaten even as the men were still alive, he watched as both knights and hunters cut off the limbs of the captured men that were captured and already injured.

Lord Jose and William stood at the center of a bed of corpses, the blood of those slain covered the gold at their feet, Jose's daughter and sons, as well as their mother, had the blood covering them from head to toe.

Jose's eyes glowed with an unholy light, a cold blue light seemed to be emitted from his eyes, his hammer despite still seemingly looking pure, dripped with blood that didn't seem to dry.

William stood before his hives, some women already showed that they were with child, the older man looked like a beast from hell, his eyes seemed to be a crimson red and where ever he looked only death remained.

Blood covered his sword from blade to handle.

"Throw them into the river" Jose ordered his me, Tyrion watched as the dead and the dying were dragged into the river.

Jose looked at his daughter and looked to Tyrion himself.

"Lord Tyrion get your people into their houses, no get them into your ships and set them a sail, come back tomorrow or in two days."

"Even as we speak the smell of blood is calling the animals to our location." Jose said to him as men and women began to carry buckets of watter and pour them all over the ground.

Tyrion watched as the people attempted to wash the blood away, by the desperate way they were acting Tyrion could tell that any questions he had would not be answered.

"Throw the dead into the river!" he ordered the settlers, before the ground shook.

"Anyone that cant fight go to the ships and tell the captain to set sail! we cant lose the town" he ordered the woman and children.

The men and the knights began to copy the people of Joses town and tried to wash away the blood of the dead.

Suddenly the world became quiet, luckily the ships had already begun to leave their location and Tyrion hoped they managed to get away fast enough.

"Get in the houses! get in the houses!" someone screamed and the men did just that.

Several knights and settlers squeezed themselves into every house they could and locked the doors shut using thick tree branches.

They didn't bother saving any of the captured men, what would have been the point of it, so they left them there alone, Tyrion could hear the men scream and the hows and, grows of unholy beings moved about, the men's screams seemed to last for hours.

Time and time again, all of the sounds ended and suddenly they would start all over again, form time to time something struck the houses, but thankfully whatever the abominations were they failed to do so.

They couldn't enter the houses, the attack continued through the night and finally it stopped, Tyrion swore that it had been worse during the night, it was like if the beasts were attacking and eating one another.

The next day the men finally opened the door and they were met with the ruins of their settlement, from afar Tyrion locked eyes with Lord Jose and understood the men hate-filled gaze.

First, they would repair their towns, then revenge.


	10. Chapter 10

[Character change Jake]

There was nothing, a lifetimes work gone in an instant, the animals, the insects, the scales and even the gold was all gone, either eaten by the creatures of the forest or crushed underneath their teeth and massive bodies.

The spiders whose silk the people used to make garments were completely dead now, their bits where all of the silk came out from were torn open, the creatures didn't move.

The fish they had caught not too long ago, nothing was left of them, even the supplies brought in by the people of the Lannisters kingdom was gone there was nothing.

She could hear the children cry even the orphans felt completely helpless at the sight of their ruined homes.

"Stop!" William screamed, she watched as he held Jose's hand, William was trying to stop Jose from killing any more prisoners.

"If you kill them the animals will just attack the village!" William screamed top Jose as he tried to talk some sense into the man.

"Look at what they did, we worked all of our lives to get to where we were and now!" Jose's words seemed to lose their strength.

"Now your people need you, they need you to be strong. Look these men aren't from the same village, their faces, paint, and clothing don't match, either this was a unified attack or someone forced them to attack" William said to Jose.

She could see her lose some of his rage if only for a little bit.

"No one will accept us standing still, even if they do I won't. This is an order scout ahead we're taking over everything from as far as we can get before the animals finally comeback" Jose said to William.

William slowly let go of Jose's hand.

"What will you do with the men, if enough of them ."

"Sell them off as slaves, everyone men woman and child, everyone from the ages of ten and up, I won't risk a rebellion, we already lost too much." Jose answered William.

"That's too much, the people won't accept it. May I suggest castrating all of the boys from ten on down and keeping all of the women that can have children, get rid of all of the rest, they are both a threat and a liability." the short man Tyrion said to Jose, his eyes seemed to match the rage filling Jose's soul.

For a brief moment, Jake swore she saw a lion made of gold before it was a man with two great beasts, they looked like dogs but they couldn't have been, they were far too powerful and the two dogs became a giant beast that had a fire burning from within.

She watched one of the two boys walk up to the small man, they were almost equal in size and Jake felt tears fall from her eyes, she had been with the children and Jose long enough, when had the boys and the girls entered her heart she didn't know, but it was shattering at the moment.

Her eyes switched between the real world and that other hellish place and a white wolf stood where Jose should have, a black wolf stood where Willan was a lion made of gold stood were Tyrion was and finally the two dos ...They...they were her son...

Jake cried...she was losing her son...

"Lord Tyrion, can I count on you and your men's help, well supply you with the scales to help you build the wall between the forest and your town, as you can see ours held." Jose said to Tyrion as he pointed at the walls.

"I thank you for your generosity, you can count on my men when the fighting finally begins." Tyrion said to Jose, the sound of a bell ringing made them all turn their heads, it was the ships that had escaped.

"You don't need me to tell you what to do, you already know, find them and tell us where the are. Don't attack just find them all." Jose said to several of the hunters that stood near him, the men didn't say a word, they just ran to the walls and used them to jump into the trees and vanish into the forest.

She could see the horror on both the people in her town and those coming off the ships, none could believe what they were seeing, the had lost everything.


	11. Chapter 11

The ground beneath my feet felt different., long gone was the stone road that led into the town and straight to the river, it was broken under the combined weight of the massive creatures that had come searching for their next kill.

"Sir!"

I heard Jose call out to the smith, the poor man had lost nearly everything he needed to do his job, his tools were there, his house was there, but a smith needs materials, strange contraptions, that Jake for herself couldn't understand how he used them, but those contractions were now broken.

"We are going to need armor, can I count on you to make it, I know you have taken apprentices," Jose asked the smith the man moved his hand over the ruins of his workshop.

"I know, but the walls held and you didn't have your devices when you made my hammer"

"Hold on, the armor needs to be made of something durable, but light enough the men aren't too tired to move in, We need some sort of padding underneath it, it keeps the men warm in winter and cool during the summer." William said as he interrupted Jose.

"Perhaps layered shoulder guards, that way the men can lift their hands without much difficulty, and Idontcare what any of them will say, we are going to need helmets." Josesaded to the discussion.

Jake had to hand it to the man when both William and Jose spoke about what they wanted he had graved a piece of charcoal and began t write down what they said on a piece of nearby loose cloth.

"Their feet, need to be guarded, sandals aren't going to do the job, if the enemy doesn't kill them, the bugs, the plants or whatever animal will, so..." William added his expertise.

"Yeah we're going to need some help, William do we have any gold left." Jose asked William as he looked around a noticed that nearly all of the gold that had been brought in earlier was either somewhere in the dirt or pushed to the edges o the wall near the river.

Jake felt a pair of small hands tighten their grip on hers and for a brief instant she caught a glimpse of two small lizards, they were almost the same but just like the flock that lived in the house, they each had their unique coloring to them.

The girls were worried of what was to come, she watched as the youngest of the boys walked up t a fallen sword and picked it up, it was at that instant that she saw a massive serpent that shot fire from its mouth, she would have called it a dragon but such a creature had wings and the serpent in front of her didn't.

She watched as Jose began to walk away, she watched as the great white wolf of the forest walked side by side the elder black wolf of the woods, she tried to follow them but she found herself unable to, sh who was supposed to be his guard was firmly locked in pace unable to move.

She looked to her left and there was a golden lion next to a small lizards with wings, both looked as if they had a grace to them, she turned to her right and there was a lioness,her eyes held no kindness, they were selfish and cared not for others, and yet the small lizard or are they perhaps dragons, didn't seem the least bit intimidated by the two lionesses.

The days passed quickly after that and surprisingly repairing the town went remarkably quickly, because the scales proved themselves to be stronger than most stone, alto of the houses that had wood in some areas that mad them weak, took advantage of the towns repair to replace the wooden walls or floors with scales.

Even the Lannister settlement had scale buildings, more notably, Lord Tyrion's mansion.

The attackers had used a simple method, spill some blood and let the forest do the job for you, this place isn't a place where the weak can live for long, so if one wanted to eat, they had to do so quickly.

The hunters and the knights would begin to patrol soon after the repairs were done and would return with animals that needed several dozen men just to move them.

The creatures weren't meant to be eaten, no they had been poisoned to death.

Their purpose was for clothing, spiders made silk and giant silkworms just needed to be fed, with that the town's problems about clothing ended.

The spiders for their part didn't need to be alive for only their back parts were what mattered, so a lot of times, the spiders were only brought back in pieces, the men were careful to leave its back part intact.

Jake watched as William fought with Jose over and over again, hammer vs sword and sword vs sword, until one night all of the hunters that had left the village returned.

They carried skins and each skin had a map of the forest, or how the forest looked when one traveled from tree to tree, there marked with red berry paint, were the locations of every nearby village.

"Take three days to sleep and rest, we march when the three days end." Jose said to the hunters.

Jake looked at Jose, the hunters, William and the small man Tyrion and how grim their faces looked, she didn't know it at the moment but far away in the land of Westeros, Tywin Lannister father of Tyrion Lannister, also known as the imp, looked at his men.

Before him were several soldiers, knights of highborn families and those of low born families, the men were already on boats, they knew that they weren't meant to stay in that new land, no they were there only to reinforce the new settlement.

"You all have your orders, my son will inform me if any of you do anything to the women of either town, you may do as you please with the prisoners."

"As far, as I'm concerned those lands, are Lannister lands, how dare savages try and lay claim to them, the lands next to them belong to our allies, people that have learned to survive, do not antagonize them or else you will not survive." Tywin said to the knights and the ships set sail.


	12. Chapter 12

The wind blew quietly, the forest had lost all of its sounds, distant were the calls of the animals, even the snapping sounds of embers breaking free in the fires seemed somehow quieter than usual.

The sound of an armored boot reached her ears, she turned to see who it was and she found William standing behind her, the daylight was vanishing and soon hey would be at the mercy of the dark once again.

"Tell me do you love him?" he asked her, she didn't know how to answer the man but none the less just looked at him.

"You kept quiet, I bet you see him as your best chance at a better life. N hats not right, you've been living better than most pe people have."

"...Bed him and make sure you get pregnant, there is no guarantee that any of us will come back and if we do, there's no guarantee that he wouldn't have fathered several bastards." he said to her and she immediately spoke.

"He wouldn't" her voice sounded desperat.

"And why not? Let me tell you what has just happened, the woman he has protected until now, the one person he has allowed besides me and those children, which aren't his, hesitated the moment she was asked if she loved him."

"If this was any other place in the world you would be chased away so that someone more fitting would take your place, at least she would be honest about not caring about him, rather than keeping him wrapped around her finger."

She wanted to argue with the man, but his eyes were no longer friendly and kind once she had known.

"Like it or not, you have a kingdom and it needs an inheritor, no one will accept those children as their new kings, they aren't his. You, Jose, may see them as your own, but no one else sees them as his and that's what counts"

"Make your choice" William said to her, before walking up to where two of his wives were waiting for him.

She watched as the children and their pets walked away with the man and his wives, Jake didn't know what to do, so she decided to wander around the village.

The light of day made way for the light of torches, she walked past the walls that separated one side of the river from the other and she soon found herself following the sound of metal hitting metal.

Ping, ping, ping.

Were the sounds she heard before the sound of someone gasping for air, followed it.

"Good job young lord, you will soon be a great swordsman," A man said, his voice was deep, yet strange and if Jake had to describe it, it seemed to somehow leave an echo inside a person when they heard the man speak.

"I'm next, drop the sword you'll be facing off against an opponent that has a weapon while you don't have anything." she heard another man speak.

She finally reached the area where the men's voices were coming from and she jumped the moment someone spoke next to her.

"This isn't a place for a woman, even women that can fight know not to let themselves be surrounded by men. What good skills, when you're overwhelmed by numbers, trust me I've seen it before." Lord Tyrion the small man said to her.

They looked at each other.

"Come with me" he said to her before he led her to a nearby table, there weren't any chairs so they would both have to stand.

"What's wrong?" he asked her as he poured her a cup of wine.

Jake watched the men spar until she noticed that one of the men was Jose.

"Don't interfere, we're about to go to war and he has to learn" Tyrion said to her.

Jake looked at the small man and said to him everything that William had said to her earlier.

"Well bed him, fuck him, ride him, left him do everithing because William is right, like it or not you have the only village, town or kingdom that has until now survived, granted you needed my peoples help to retaliate."

"Let that sink in, right that's enough, like or not, not only is this kingdom already trading with the outside world, what will every other kingdom do when they realize that this place is thriving,"

"Right now he is preparing himself for the trial of blood, the time where every kingdom must prove it has the right to exist, daughters will be offered and whores will be given and he will enjoy them"

"Not if, will that's not avoidable, better he has a son waiting for him so that in his old age he can take over when that one is too old to continue." Tyrion said to her as he signaled to Jose who was on the ground gasping for air.

"Lord Tyrion what's going to happen, if, no when it's over?" she asked him.

The small man drank loudly from his cup and looked at her.

"If you want me to say good things will come, I'm sorry but that's not going to happen."

"Slaves need to be sorted out, those that will cause trouble need to either be de an example of or sold off to some faraway land, women and children need to be broken and all of that is before the war has even ended."

"Land, gold and other kinds of payment have to be given, not to mention that if there are other settles that have been captured, well we will have to split them between your kingdom and my own."

She looked at him, this time however she just dropped her eyes.

"Wars take years, months, weeks, get him home and mount him, have a baby be put in you, after all, you'll be ruling until he comesback," Tyrion said to her as the sound of someone walking up to them reached her ears.

"So what's going on?" she heard Jose's voice.

"First have a drink" Tyrion said to him and when Jose did so, the man immediately began to speak.

"Jake her has just asked me what is the best position for child making, considering I free want your pleasure house and have some experience in it."

Tyrion's smiling face completely dropped.

"She wants to have sex with you, there I've said it, you two sort it out" he said to them while the entire time he looked at her.

Jake was thankful that it was dark because she would have sworn her face would have turned bright red.

"Let's go home" Jose said to her.


	13. Chapter 13

[Character change Jose]

The sound of someone hitting the door reached my ears and when I opened the door he found a guard looking at him, the man's eyes were hard, like if he was expecting something to happen.

Jose turned to look at Jake who was covering her hers using a blanket, William didn't take long to come out and we both stepped out of the house to see what was going on, I couldn't believe my eyes five ships were had docked and been already letting the men down.

The men wore different kinds of armor, some were so new that it seemed like it had only been recently made, others didn't shine at all, they were worn out and looked like if they wouldn't be able to protect anyone, still the men wore them proudly.

Some sets of armor matched with others amongst the group, but nearly all of them were slightly different from one another, if Jose had to compare it to something, it would be like comparing a toy made in a factory, its no different from all of the other toys made in that factory, but the child that bought it, made certain changes, thereby making the toy look different, but nonetheless a person could tell what kind of toy it was.

Horses were being led down the ships and crates filled with food were already being unloaded.

"Let's go see" William said to me before he went back inside and immediately walked out putting on his shirt and for some reason wearing his armored boots, this was odd because he only had his sword with him, rather than his entire armor.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and found Jake handing me my hammer, my sandals, and my shirt, I took them and when I was about to leave I felt several little hand grave ahold of me, the kids held me in a tight hug each.

I hugged them back and walked down to see the new arrivals.

Even as we walked down, I could see the hunters standing on top of the tree branches waiting for something to happen, the little lizards at their side and for a brief moment I wondered when the two groups had started getting along.

I watched as men in black robes walked off the ships, the men carried paper and some sort of pens, I could tell just by looking at them that they weren't fighters, some were to fat others to skinny and some too old, there were even little kids with them.

The men were already hard at work writing something down one of them was following one of the giant beetles around like a child following a puppy.

Men that had something that looked like a guitar but its shape was wrong walked off and began to sing, there were already a lot of things happening and I had no way of knowing what was going on.

"Its all normal, those men singing are to lighten the soldier's mood, they're to make sure no one is too stressed out, the ones with the robs are used for making maps, checking what plants are edible, marking animals and so on." William said to me as he walked in front of me, the man stopped walking and only started walking again when I caught up to hi.

"From now on you lead, this means all the time Jose" William said before we reached the gate.

The knights were already standing information before and we found Tyrion alongside his men talking with several soldiers and knights that were armor or had the emblem of a gold lion on them.

"Ah Lord Jose, could you please give the men some advice on what they might find." Tyrion said to me and I felt everyone's eyes on me.

I took a deep breath and just began to talk.

"There are two kinds of people, those that are stupid and those that are smart. Don't be stupid ones, this forest will make you strong, so you don't have to worry about that."

"There will be plenty of women to enjoy later so don't attack any of the ones here and Youll see a lot of things that shouldn't be possible, so rely on each other because you'll need each other's help to survive" IO said to them and I found William smiling at me, the man looked like if he was bout to burst out laughing.

The rest of the day passed with everyone either cleaning their armors or just getting to know one another, some men went to the pleasure houses and everyone just passed the time.

Snow began to fall and quickly yet somehow slowly the night passed one by one the men gathered and a handfull of knights and hunters were separated to guard both of the towns.

The moment the sun rose for the first time the doors leading to the forest opened and the men walked into a land that they had never seen before.

They marched pas the stones put in place for the men not to bother the animal's territory, they marched past the dragons graveyard and they all stopped when they reached the end of everything they knew.

Tyrion and William stood in front o as we looked at the map that the hunters gave us, the closest village was two days away and to get to it, we would have to march through an area that hasn't been marked yet.


	14. Chapter 14

From here on out our lives would no longer be certain, when we were at the river, we all knew that the only thing we had to do, was stay away from the rest of the forest, now that was no longer the case.

I was about to step forward and begin to check out the ground in front of us, but William stopped me.

"We have men for that" was the only thing he said as men immediately ran in front of the group of men and began to explore the area in front of us.

Slowly we began to march deeper and deeper into the snow-covered forest, our only way back was a simple path made by the men's marching feet crushing the snow beneath them and small stones on the side.

It didn't take long before the forest let itself be known, at our left was a greate bear one whose fur was a deep brown and whose claws were as black as coal, its eyes were sunken inside its head considering that its snout made its face look somewhat stretched out.

The creature just looked at the army as we marched, however, it never bothered coming near us.

We continued to march until the sun began to set, it was then that we realized that the forest around us, wasn't a forest at all, the trees were moving.

Boom boom boom, the sound of their exploding footsteps reach our ears as the massive creatures wake up and began to move, it was getting dark and it would be nearly impossible to start a fire, especially considering that with every step the creatures gave, they picked up snow and made lots of wind.

The horses screamed as they tried to run away from the danger, unfortunately, if they managed to get away they wouldn't be alive for that much longer.

No one moved, we all just watched as the creatures moved around, we watched as the moon rose as our only companion for the night, luckily the combination of furs and skins amongst the men would keep them all warm.

Unfortunately, it was still incredibly cold.

We couldn't march, not at night it was too dangerous to even with the light of the moon accompanying us, so as the night went on, the men began to speak amongst themselves.

They passed around wine to keep themselves warm and spoke about their wives, mothers, lovers, and someone had said something about a goat somewhere along the line before we knew it night had passed and we were on our way once again.

We marched through a field where plants hummed t by themselves and changed color depending on which one was making the sound, a small clearing led us to a place where insects covered the ground, it was there that the hunters refused to set foot on.

For whatever reason they could, no they wouldn't go near the insect, as we circled the clearing, we found ourselves starting at cages filled with human remains.

The men immediately drew their swords, not because the cages had skeletons and rotting human flesh, no because the cages themselves looked as if they had been grown around the people inside them.

As we marched the hairs on my hands began to stand and I soon found myself looking at a thin man who was painted half white and half black, the man tried to let out a scream, but one of the hunters slight his neck in less than a blink of an eye.

"Thye are not letting the attack go" William said as he looked at the hunter who had just killed the man.

"See that knife, see how they handle has different colors, that means its poisoned, normally they don't use poison, but after the attack, they started carrying it around. No color, no poison, color poison" William said to me as we marched forward and we soon found ourselves standing in front of a village, it barely had a stick wall around it and the people were more bones than meat.

I didn't bother saying anything I just lifted my hand and the men did the rest, the screams of women and children filled the air, as men tried t defend them, even when they tried to escape into the forest, the hunters stopped them.

It wasn't even a fight, no one on our side died, when t was all said and done I stood in front of a giant black tree and without a word one of the men handed me an ax and I began to cut the tree down.

The people looked at me with horror, there's no point in just cutting down a tree, as long as the roots remain, it will always grow back, but for now, just for now this all I can do.

The men were divided into two groups slaves and fighters, those that would fight for us, even if they didn't want to, the slaves would be the older generation, everyone else was from ten on up.

It was something Tyrion told me about, the men won't fight for you, but they will fight for their lives and if they don't they die, nothing lost something gained.

The women were divided more or less the same, except they were divided into threes, those that were old, those that had kids and those that didn't.

Before we marched forward, the men found all of the food in the village was either some kind of lizard we hadn't seen before or the remains of other people, we didn't take anything from the village, instead of before we left the men made sure to burn everything.

[Tyrion]

It's a curious thing, seeing a boy turn into a man, one would think that for it to happen some sort of greate celebration or something had to happen, after all, if life had taught me one thing is that one doesn't become a man just because he grows up.

Yet in my short time in this world, I have had the pleasure of...well there's no easier way to say it, I have seen grown men act like infants and boys that aren't anywhere near grown yet are my size act like grown men.

Never before would I have believed that I would have participated in a battle, much less an invasion, no it's not an invasion, we aren't claiming anything, no land is being taken and no settlements are being left behind.

Still, to think that men that bare the Lannister sigil await my orders, these same men would have spoken about me in whispers and would have mocked my size and yet they march at my speed.

After last night the looks they once had are gone, all one has to do is look in their eyes and they would know that the men that follow me are scared and yet they choose to follow.

I wonder why that is?

"Hoooo!" a massive ape that's easily the size of a cow runs towards us and yet it doesn't pass through the path we walk on, its a peculiar thing, its arms are as thick as tree branches and I'm fairly certain that if it wanted to it could eat me with a single bite and yet for all its power, it can't or won't cross the line.

Even as we march forward I see both William and Jose looking around, the boy's inexperience shows its self more and more, especially considering he keeps moving his head in whatever direction a new sound comes from.

"Quickly we won't be safe if we're left behind" I hear the scribes say to each other as they draw the various trees and creatures we walk past.

If this was another time, I would love to see what they had drawn, but unless I keep up this pace, I'll be left behind.

It's strang marching through this forest, how is it that despite snow covering the lands, the trees are still green in certain places, I can hear the women whimpering alongside their sons and daughters.

Truth be told I would rather let Jose do his thing and kill them all, but doing so would mean that the men would have to deal with seeing that act and it could affect their already weakened spirits.

So caught up in my thoughts that I nearly didn't notice Jose and Willam had stopped walking and with them so had their men.

"The path s gone...what I mean is that there isn't any path anymore," William said to me as I walked up to him and Jose.

Suddenly a hunter dropped from one of the trees and he held a dead bird in one arm, at least I think its a bird, the thing has two clawed feet, two wings a beak and feathers, but I've never seen a bird with teeth.

"So it's true we're being watched," Jose said as he looked at the corps.

"Lord Tyrion, I have a request send half the men or whatever number you think is needed to get the slaves back to the village" jose said as he looked into the forest, however, he didn't move, it was like if he was staring directly at something.

"It's waiting for us to step out of the path" William said to Jose as he drew his sword.

Its a curious thing seeing a boy become a man, it doesn't require any sort of special event, no what it needs is for that boy to begin to see the bigger picture and learn to act on it.

I didn't bother saying anything to them, there was no point in doing so.

"Alright listen, I have good news and bad news"

"The good news is some of you get to go back to the village, the bad news is you have to take the slaves with you, so if anyone wants to go back all you have to do is step forward" I said to the men, but none of them did.

"Lord Tyrion, may I with your permission," William said to me.

"Of course" I answered him back.

"There's no point in lying to any of you, the path is gone, from here on out we will march without protection, those of you that do go back, help strengthen the defenses, you have already seen glimpses of what we'll find"

"That's one reason, the second is so that our hard work is lost," William said to them, yet still not a single man stepped forward.

"With all due respect my lords, we all knew that we weren't going back to Westeros, we knew that when we boarded the ships that it would most likely be the last time we would ever see home"

"So my lords please let us fulfill our duty," one of the knights said.

"Their coming" Jose said as he drew his hammer and the sound of snow being crushed reached my ears, the men immediately drew their swords and those with horses prepared their lances.

I couldn't believe my eyes as giant lizards that walked on two legs and had a mouth that was covered in teeth so sharp they could cut threw a sword.

I watched as the men took up their positions and without a word, they began to fire arrows at the lizards, one by one the lizards fell and yet they kept coming, they made it past the first second and fifth dead one and before I knew it I heard the sound of metal hitting scales as Jose drove his hammer into a lizards skull.

The men all screamed and charged with them those that had horses tried to fight the lizards it was only because we had the numbers on our side, but had we been slightly less we would have lost, thankfully we didn't.


End file.
